I've been diagnosed with viral warts which happen to be around the base of my penis, does that mean I have a form of HPV?

July 21, 2007 6:53 AM

I've been diagnosed with viral warts which happen to be around the base of my penis, does that mean I have a form of HPV?

A couple years ago, I noticed a small wart hidden amoungst my pubic hair down there. A couple years pass and a few other buddies grew in to keep it company just around the base of my penis and a couple on my scrotum. I have kind of a tanned complexion (I'm half white and half black) and these warts are slightly browner and mostly flat and pretty small compaired to the giants I see on google images. The biggest one being um maybe like 1/8th the size of a pencil eraser or so? I think maybe.

I was sleeping only with my wife for 2 years with them(she hasn't grown any warts after sleeping with me for 2 years) and got a divorce recently and finally decided to have it checked out since I'm back in the dating scene (I wasn't even sure they were warts, but the DR verified). So she says they are a form of viral warts and not genital warts because of their small size, color, shape (they aren't all cauliflower lookin). She said they are viral warts like the kind most people get on your feet or fingers, and is as common as acne.

She asked me a series of questions and concluded that they probably popped up down there because I used the same hair clippers on my head as I do down there to trim up.

She gave me a freeze treatment and told me to buy my own freeze treatment from Walgreens because it may take a few more treatments. So here are my ultimate questions:

Since they are around my penis, could this possibly be some form of human papillomavirus (HPV)?

After my freeze treatment, after the scabs fell off, the skin tone was a lot lighter, will the color eventually return? And they sorta itch now, is this normal? They did not itch before. And they didn't puss before, but they don't leak puss now either. She said they would itch or puss if they were some form of genital warts.

Also, if they are viral warts and I freeze them all off, should I still be worried about spreading them to someone?

Is it really serious at all if it is as common as acne? If this is HPV I'm a little reluctant to sleep with anyone because apparently it causes cervical cancer in women.

Please leave an email if you have any questions. I'm afraid to leave mine in case someone googles my email and finds this post. :-/

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (9 comments total)

All warts are caused by strains of HPV. However, not all strains of HPV cause cervical cancer (and, by the way, rectal cancer). The strains of HPV that cause cancer are not the same strains as those that cause warts. Warts are contagious, but do not cause cancer. I am not a doctor, and you should ask your doctor to address any concerns you have about sexually transmitted diseases.
posted by decathecting at 7:02 AM on July 21, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm afraid to leave mine in case someone googles my email and finds this post. :-/

Use a throwaway gmail or yahoo account.
posted by IronLizard at 8:27 AM on July 21, 2007

If you create a throwaway address, email from it to my email, and I'll post it here for you.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 9:22 AM on July 21, 2007

decathecting is right. HPV causes all warts. Not all of those warts end up on your wang/cooter. Some end up on your hands and feet.

There are many, many strains of HPV. Three or so of those strains cause colds sores and warts. A completely different set of strains cause cervical cancer.

Even if you have HPV (which, by the way, 75 percent of sexually active people do have it), there is no guarantee that it will manifest into any kind of symptoms. Most couples who have an HPV strain between them find that after a year of monogamy they both become immune to the HPV.

However, this does NOT answer your question of whether or not you have genital warts. Only a doctor can answer that question, and IANAD. It sounds, from your post, like your doctor has already answered this question:

So she says they are a form of viral warts and not genital warts because of their small size, color, shape

When in doubt, seek a second opinion. A PROFESSIONAL opinion.
posted by Brittanie at 9:43 AM on July 21, 2007

There are many, many strains of HPV. Three or so of those strains cause colds sores and warts.

Cold sores are caused by herpes, not HPV.

Most couples who have an HPV strain between them find that after a year of monogamy they both become immune to the HPV.

This is not correct information, please consult your doctor (a different one, this one sounds a little, uh, unclear) or the CDC's webpage on HPV.
posted by tristeza at 9:49 AM on July 21, 2007

First of all, thanks for asking about this. So many men think that HPV is something that should be left to women to worry about, rather than something we should be informed about. And many doctors, including yours, apparently, are using information that's woefully out of date to diagnose STIs. A lot of research has come out in just the past five years that pertains to what you're experiencing.

decathecting has it. All warts are caused by HPV—and because you don't know which strain of HPV you have, it's your duty to inform potential partners about it. As decathecting is correct in noting, the strains of HPV that cause warts generally are not known to cause cancer. But because for various reasons doctors and the FDA have deemed it unnecessary to develop a commercially available test to type HPV in males, you can't be sure you're not potentially carrying another (silent) strain along with the one you're presenting symptoms of. Two of those silent strains, HPV-16 and HPV-18, are the ones that cause most cervical cancers.

(I'm not trying to make you paranoid, but pretty much no male can be sure he isn't carrying a silent strain, unless he's had zero sexual partners. That's why condoms are an important part of any sexual encounter outside of a monogamous relationship, because a number of STIs don't present immediate symptoms, and people can harbor more than one strain of HPV at once. Although condoms aren't 100 percent effective in keeping infected skin surfaces from touching a partner, they do prevent potentially infected sperm from passing the virus along to one's partner.)

Something else you should know about HPV concerns the issue of viral shedding. (Previously discussed here.) In times of stress, when the body's immune system functions are depressed, or just at times when the virus feels like reproducing itself, it can shed copies of itself onto the skin in the infected area—thus making the possibility of transmission more likely.

One can in fact transmit the virus to another area of one's own body, usually in cases where there's an open cut or sore in either the infected area or the area the virus is transmitted to. Not all strains will migrate to another area of the body like that—but it's notable that the strains that infect the genitals (both warts-causing and silent) can manifest themselves orally. This is important, because HPV-16 and HPV-18 were also recently linked to oral and throat cancers. (See recent Savage Love column, as well as this article.)

Another thing to note: HPV often spontaneously regresses, or disappears from the body entirely, within a two-year period of the initial infection. You may never be troubled by warts again, now that yours have been removed. That said, you may be among the portion of the population whose warts recur—and again, you could be carrying another strain silently.

So what can you do, given all this information? Two main things. First, the best thing you can do for yourself is to not worry. Your risk of developing cancer or oral HPV is very slim, and there is the possibility that your infection will spontaneously disappear within two years anyway.

Second, the best thing you can do for potential partners is to inform them that you have HPV and urge them to start the three-shot course of the Gardasil vaccine as soon as possible, if they haven't already. Planned Parenthood now has a program to allow low-income individuals to receive the entire course of the vaccine for free—I'm currently taking advantage of that—but if your potential sweetheart doesn't fall into that category, I'd say you should offer to pay for all or part of the cost. Gardasil is effective in preventing HPV-6, -11, -16, and -18—the four strains of HPV implicated in most cervical cancers.

Also of note: In an earlier AskMe thread about HPV, one respondent noted that her doctor said even the first shot is about 98 percent effective in preventing HPV infection. My doctor has pretty much confirmed this. And if your potential sweetheart is older than 26, currently the oldest age for which the FDA has approved the drug, she may still be able to get the vaccine by asking her doctor. Age 26 is the current cut-off because most people who are going to be infected are infected by this point, and because the vaccine was only tested in individuals in this age group. But they're currently testing the vaccine in older individuals, and there's evidence that it's effective in preventing new infections with any of the four strains it protects against.

Additional reading: the Wikipedia article on HPV, as well as this Google Answers thread that provides a number of answers to questions you may have.
posted by limeonaire at 10:22 AM on July 21, 2007

Also, to answer another of your questions: the freeze treatment just takes off the top layer of skin. Sometimes it doesn't get rid of the entire body of the wart—hence why your doctor recommended that you get the freeze treatment from Walgreens. But since you're removing the top layer of skin, that means that after the scabs fall off, you're revealing new skin—just like when you cut yourself and it leaves a shiny patch or a scar for a while after the scab falls off.

So it may be itching because you're healing, as well as because you have HPV. After you've completely freezed off the layers of skin that are infected with the virus, and it's completely healed, it probably won't itch anymore—though the color may remain lighter for a time.
posted by limeonaire at 10:39 AM on July 21, 2007

My mistake on the cold sores. Tristeza is right there. However:

Most couples who have an HPV strain between them find that after a year of monogamy they both become immune to the HPV.

This is not correct information, please consult your doctor (a different one, this one sounds a little, uh, unclear) or the CDC's webpage on HPV.

Monogamy is the second best method of HPV prevention. Although a couple does expose one another to the types of HPV each already has, they create a closed system, where new types are unlikely to be introduced. If all goes well, both people will be able to fight off the types of HPV they already have. Of course, so-called "serial monogamy" is much less helpful in preventing HPV than long-term, committed relationships, because each new partner opens up new possibilities for HPV exposure.

Also, from Limeonaire,'s comment:

HPV often spontaneously regresses, or disappears from the body entirely, within a two-year period of the initial infection.

So, if you are in a truly monogamous relationship, and both of you have functioning immune systems, then after some time it is possible your body will fight off the infection.

Also, a recent study found that condom use helps speed up regression in men.
posted by Brittanie at 7:32 PM on July 21, 2007

It would be helpful if those posting detailed info could post their basic qualifications in the subject matter -- it's hard to know who to listen to, particularly when the info conflicts.
posted by loiseau at 6:12 PM on July 22, 2007