Vaginal Wart Treatment

Genital warts are growths caused by the human papillomavirus. They are soft, skin-coloured or slightly darker, and can be single or in clusters with a surface that has been described for a century as cauliflower-like. Most cause nothing beyond their presence; some itch, catch on clothing or bleed a little.

HPV is passed by skin-to-skin contact in the genital area, and it is one of the commonest infections there is. Most people who acquire it clear it without ever knowing they had it. The types that produce visible warts are, for the most part, different from the types associated with cancer of the cervix, so a wart is not a pre-cancerous change.

The time between acquiring the virus and seeing a wart varies from a few weeks to a year or more, and the virus can sit silently in the skin for much longer than that before anything appears. So the arrival of warts says nothing reliable about when or from whom the virus was acquired. That is worth stating plainly, because the assumption that it does causes a great deal of unnecessary distress between partners.

The diagnosis is made by looking, and an experienced doctor recognises typical warts immediately. Your doctor examines the vulva, the opening of the vagina and the skin around it, usually looks inside the vagina with a speculum, and checks the area around the anus as well, since warts are commonly at more than one site and the ones you can feel are rarely all of them.

What they are chiefly looking for is anything that does not behave like a wart. A growth that is pigmented, ulcerated, hard, bleeding or stubbornly unresponsive to treatment has a small sample taken, because a few other things look similar and are managed very differently. A biopsy is not part of the routine.

Your doctor will also check that your cervical screening is up to date and may offer testing for other infections passed the same way, since finding one is a good reason to look for others. Expect to be asked whether you are or might be pregnant, because that changes which treatments can be used.

Warts respond slowly and the unit of time is weeks. Treatments you apply yourself at home are used in repeating cycles across several weeks, and it is normal for the skin to become red and sore while they are working; your doctor will show you exactly where to put it and how much. Treatments applied in the clinic are repeated at weekly or fortnightly intervals over a similar span.

Where warts are physically removed, the treated skin takes one to three weeks to heal. Expect soreness for the first few days, keep the area clean and dry, and use whatever ointment and pain relief you are given. Passing urine over raw skin stings, and pouring water as you go helps more than anything else.

Clearing the warts and clearing the virus are separate questions. Visible warts go in most people within a few months of starting treatment, and a share return within the first six months, because the virus persists in skin that looks entirely normal. Warts that come back are treated the same way, and they usually need less work the second time.