Genital Warts: Treatment Options and Prevent Recurrence

Warts are growth that are caused by low grade Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) group such as Type 6 and 11. Even though genital warts are not deadly, it can still cause major distress and impact to patient's emotional and psychological aspects as well as their sexual confidence

Onto physical implications, genital warts tend to grow rapidly and can potentionally cause local skin problems such as covering important organs such as the vagina, urethra and anus. Warts also can be itchy, irritating, bleed and infected with bacteria if left untreated. 30% of patient manage to clear their warts even with no treatment after their first exposure. However, there are a lot more patient who could not clear the virus from their body and continue to be debilitated by genital warts. It's all depends on an individual immune system 

There are various factors that can cause your immune system to be low. For example having chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease or requiring dialysis support, active cancer, use of medication or treatment that can cause suppression to one's immune system (such as steroid usage, immunosuppresant such as Methotrexate or biologic injection) and concomitant infection with other type of chronic STDs (such as HIV, Syphilis). There are also factors such as pregnancy and use of contraceptive pills which can cause increase moist and blood flow to the genital region. There are also environmental factors such as unsafe sex practices (not using condom, multiple sex partners) and unhealthy lifestyle and habits (high stress level, smoking, sedentary lifestyle and poor diet)

Treatment of genital warts depends on the severity and extensiveness of the the warts, risk factors for poor immune systems, cost and patient's desire. There are topical treatment such as acid solution, Imiquimod and 5- fluorouracil cream. Topical treatment with acid solution can be use in mild case but can still cause irritation to the sensitive genital skins. Removal of warts can be performed via surgery, electrosurgery/diathermy, laser and cryotherapy. These methods get rid of warts that can be seen and warts that lived below the skin surface. There are potential risk such as pain, bleeding, risk of infection and scarring. Warts can also recur after removal process on the same location if the wart treatment are incomplete or new warts can still form nearby the area

After genital warts are removed, there are several ways that can be done to prevent recurrence such as:

• Improve your immune system by regular exercises, eating healthy, adequate sleep and reducing daily stress level
• Stop smoking
• Reduced genital skin irritation by stopping practices such as shaving and waxing
• Treat underlying cause of poor immune systems such as improving your blood sugar control by taking diabetes recommended by your physician, anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for HIV and discuss treatment plans with your doctor on long term use of steroid and immunosuppresant)
• Use of topical immune response modifier such as Imiquimod
• Vaccination against HPV (Gardasil 9) 

If you would like to know more information regarding genital warts and its treatment, contact our clinic today