Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with genitalwarts

Sharing a sex toy w/o spreading HPV?

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:58:51 -0800

What precautions should my partner and I take if we want to share a silicone sex toy without spreading HPV between us? What we've been able to find on the web suggest that HPV can be spread by sharing toys, but doesn't give much practical advice on what to do about it. (For various reasons, the other means of transmission aren't an issue for us right now.) Tips?

Please don't pass the cauliflower: HPV

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:05:23 -0800

Okay, I'll just say it: I've got genital warts. I was diagnosed in July after a rather regrettable one-night stand in May. It was a mild case, looking nothing like the scary pictures I'd seen online -- the warts were smooth and flat and fairly small, and all were external. My pap (taken at the same time as diagnosis) was clean, as were my complete STD screens (including HIV).

My doctor gave me Aldara (imiquimod) cream for one month. When I went in at that point for a check-up, she said the spots that remained were more or less gone and it would be okay to stop using the cream.

In the month that followed the warts came back, at least in a couple of places. I filled my refill of Aldara and used it for a couple more weeks, but didn't have any luck. It's not any worse than it ever was, but of course now it's just making me mad. Ever since I came down with this I have felt disgusting, like I'll never be sexually appealing to anyone again.

Something that complicates matters is that I take a drug that suppresses (part of) my immune system, for a separate immune dysfunction. I imagine this is part of the reason I haven't been able to fight off the warts.

And I've tried a high-dose regimen of folic acid and one of the B vitamins that I read about online, which seemed to have no effect.

I'm going to go to a doctor in the next few days, but I'd like to hear from people who've been successfully treated -- what worked for you? Should I do cryotherapy next? How painful is it? How long did it take you to clear? How did you deal with the awful feeling that comes with being "tainted" this way? How are you now? Did anyone have success with Aldara? Any other alternative measures I can try?

(And please, spare the safe sex lectures, etc. I already know. And I'm tested regularly for everything including HIV and will continue to be.)

Oral HPV? If so, what do I do?

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 13:20:27 -0800

Help! What's the best resource for HPV in the St. Louis metro area? Specifically, I'm looking for someone in this area who knows something—you know, anything at all—about the diagnosis and treatment of HPV's manifestation as oral warts.

Eight years ago, I was diagnosed with genital warts, and about a year ago, I started to develop warts on my hand. That was disturbing, but that was it, you know?

But then six weeks ago, I came down with mono—and two weeks ago, I started to notice little white bumps on the inside of my cheeks, as well as slightly different white spots on my lips. My upper lip is swollen and, when stretched a little, looks as though it has dozens of little tiny white bumps inside. There are also several tiny white bumps on the surface of my lower lip.

So I'm thinking oral warts. The white spots on the inside of my cheeks, especially, look like images I've found of oral warts, and it makes sense, given that the warts on my hand already provide evidence that viral shedding from the HPV has taken place. Given that the mono has kind of knocked out my immune system, it makes a lot of sense why this would happen now.

But I still don't know definitively what this is, or how to treat it. I've done due diligence on this one. I've searched Google fairly exhaustively, I've read everything I can on the subject, and I've consulted with a general practitioner and a friend who works in a clinic out of state. But in general, I'm not getting a lot of useful information to work with, and most of the people I've talked to seem fairly dismissive of this. I can't help but think that may be because most of them have never seen a case of this.

I've found the phone numbers for national STD hotlines, but—surprise!—almost none of 'em operate on the weekend. The ones I have reached were of dubious value, considering that oral warts is a rare manifestation of HPV. Most of the hotlines are geared more towards general information—and the one national HPV hotline seems to have been rolled into a more general STD one.

So yeah—I'm looking for anything you've got, St. Louisans: references to doctors who specialize in this who you (or a friend, or whatever) have had experience with, references to the type of specialist I should be looking to see, less obvious references I might not have come across via Google, etc.

I've scheduled an appointment to see a dermatologist that's about a week and a half away—but right now, I'd like to know what I can do about this. It seems to be getting worse on an almost daily basis—and I don't even know if a dermatologist is the person I should be seeing about this!

Thanks in advance...

Confusion! It's such a terrible (HPV) strain . . .

Anonymous — Tue, 30 May 2006 12:14:51 -0800

HPV and all that it entails. Transmission, treatment, talking with partners. I've read this and this and this. I've talked to my doctor, I've read the websites, I'm still confused. And do I need a new doctor? Males don't have a test for HPV. But supposedly the virus will clear itself from their bodies in two years--does this mean ten years down the line there will still need to be disclosure about the possibility of HPV (I'm thinking yes)? "Hey, I'd love to bang you, but you could get cervical cancer from it"?

For men and women, I'm correct in assuming that if you have HPV, visible warts or no, viral shedding is going to make it essentially a given that your partner will get HPV if the entire genital area isn't covered in saran wrap?

And what about oral sex? I've heard you can get warts in your mouth, I've heard you can't, I've heard it's rare. How rare is rare? Is it a risk worth taking?

Then there's treatment. There's freezing, there's lasers, if you have it on your cervix there's LEEP, there's creams, there's electrocautery. My doctor is advocating the use of lasers, but I read there's a high risk of reemergence (70-80%, according to WebMD). He says there's too much damage done to the tissue by electrocautery. I asked about using creams and lasers in conjunction, but he was evasive and says he's not a fan of self-treatment. Also, they're itching like mad. He tells me they don't itch and the itch is an indication something else is going on. But online one of the symptoms is itching! I'm getting bad feelings about this guy. Should I be? And if better doctors are out there, how would I find them?

Then there's having sex with the partner who infected you with HPV in the first place. If they're asymptomatic and your warts are removed, are you going to promote reemergence by having sex with them? This relates to the first question about the inevitability of transmission. Will the two of you keep giving it back and forth to one another, neither to ever fully clear it out of their bodies?

I know there's a lot of information out there about HPV, but little of it is fully comprehensive and a lot of it is contradictory. Perhaps MeFi could provide some solid answers?

Male exposed to HPV

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 14:05:49 -0800

Possible-STD-filter: I recently slept with a woman a few times. She just learned from her doctor (and kindly notified me) that she has Human Papilloma Virus (the nice way of saying "genital warts"). We had very safe sex the couple of nights we spent together, but each link I've found talks about how condoms don't provide 100% protection and how men are effectively just carriers. Further, no tests exist to determine whether men have it.

So what do I do? I've seen no symptoms arise in the month or two since we slept together, and while I'm not fighting off teeming hordes of nubile women, I am single and would like to retain the option to round the bases when and if the opportunity occurs, without worrying about endangering their health (HPV apparently can lead to cervical cancer in women).

This is exactly the sort of thing that makes me so grateful for AnonyMe's existence... except I can't imagine responding to it myself.