contagious?
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| Mon, 02-06-2006 - 11:27am |
I am seeing a woman who was divorced three years ago. We have not had sexual contact yet. Last night she told me that she found out her husband was cheating on her when she contracted genital warts. She says she had it treated and it has not recurred.
Now would be a good time for me to pause and line up some facts about this before going forward. I just read that there is a 60% probability of contracting genital warts from intercouse just one time.
My questions are:
1. Is this only contagious when symptoms are present?
2. If the answer to that is "no", then how contagious is it when there are no apparent symptoms?
3. Can genital warts be recurring without the person realizing it?
Obviously, no one wants to contract a sexually transmitted disease. We are not in a commited relationship yet. So, my underlying question is, should I (sorry to put this into fishing terms) just throw this one back? Or, is it possible to have a normal sexual relationship without spreading genital warts, provided intercourse does not occur when symptoms are present? I read that condoms reduce the rate of transmission. I take it oral sex is therefore out. Again, only when symptoms are present?

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What is the treatment for HPV? I know that you MUST be diligent about thin pap tests. I was shocked when my pap came back positive for HPV, I have had yearly exams for over 20 years, and never had anything come up, so when two in a row came back with HPV, my doc recommended that I have a colposcopy done, which I did and it came back fine. She explained that there are many strains of HPV, and that I need to come back every 6 months for this procedure. I wasn't aware that there was a treatment, would you care to tell me about it? I would greatly appreciate your input.
I know you didn't ask me specifically - but I figured I'd respond and let the other user follow up.
The treatments for HPV are wart removal (if warts are present) and cervical tissue removal if the HPV has caused cancer. (There are some strains of HPV that do cause cancer)
Warts are removed by burning or freezing and cervical tissue can be removed with a cone biopsy (also known as conization).
In your case, it seems that you simply have abnormal cervical cells, but there is no cancer, so you just need to have regular paps to make sure it doesn't become cancer. Eventually your paps may return to normal, if your immune system suppresses the viral infection. As noted before, this doesn't necessarily mean you aren't contagious - the jury is still out on that.
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