Can Genital Warts Be Eliminated?

There are a lot of products available in the market nowadays that guarantee to eliminate your genital warts. However, it is important to know that the treatment that these products are talking about only refers to the removal of symptoms of genital warts. These available treatments merely get rid of the physical appearance of the warts. The virus responsible for genital warts, namely human papillomavirus (HPV), remains because there is still no cure for it. Thus, the best way of dealing with genital warts is prevention since treatment is very difficult.

It is a known fact that human papillomavirus is sexually transmitted. However, the virus does not need the exchange of fluids during sexual intercourse in order to be passed from one individual to another. Instead, HPV is spread through skin-to-skin contact with other people infected with the virus. Thus, you may use barrier protection such as condoms in order to reduce your chances of contracting HPV. These forms of protection, however, do not promise a 100 percent chance because they do not cover the genital region completely. What this means is that you can still catch the virus and get genital warts even if you are engaging in protected sex.

Immunization is another method by which you can prevent genital warts. However, this method only applies to women. In June 2006, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) approved the vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer and other diseases caused by HPV for public use. After this, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensed the vaccine for use of women ages 9 to 26. This vaccine is commonly known as Gardasil. Gardasil is designed to protect women against four strains of HPV. These four strains all together amount to 70 percent of the cases of cervical cancer and 90 percent of genital warts cases.

You may also use prescription and/or over-the-counter medications to combat your genital warts. Examples of these include pondofilox, trichloracetic acid (TCA), and imiquimod. As mentioned before, these medications are only designed to eliminate the symptoms of genital warts and not to totally cure them. A lot of medical practitioners discourage the use of these medications because most of them have strong chemicals that, when not used properly, will definitely cause harm to our sensitive genitals.

If you find that these treatments are not effective for your case, your physician may recommend that you undergo major procedures to get rid of your genital warts, such as alpha-interferon injections, cryosurgery (freezing), CO2 laser surgery, and loop electrosurgical excision procedure.

It is vital to understand that even if the treatment for warts that you underwent was highly successful in eliminating the symptoms, your genital warts might recur because no cure has been found for the root cause of the problem, which is the human papillomavirus. Studies have shown that HPV can sleep in your system for a long period, and this may bring about the outbreak of another episode of genital warts.

However, it is good to know that the recurrence of genital warts happens in different levels of persistence. Some people will undergo several recurrences, while others will only have a few. This implies that our immune system gets some hold of the HPV, thus lowering our chances of getting recurrent episodes. In fact, in many cases, the probability of genital warts resurfacing get completely eliminated after two years.