Monique Rainfor

This week Dr. Monique Rainford continues to respond to readers' questions.

Dear Dr. Rainford,

I am 22 years of age and the other day I went to a doctor and he told me that I have genital warts. I became so nervous right there and then. He gave me a prescription to fill and a letter to have a blood test done.

My questions are:

1. Is this disease curable because he said that whenever I make up my mind I should come back to burn it off ?

2. Can thisturn into HIV/AIDS?

3. If I burn it off can it appear again?

My partner doesn't have the condition. Thanks for your advice.

Dear Reader,

Genital warts are caused by the human papillomavirus or HPV. This is the same virus that can cause cervical (the neck of the womb) abnormalities. However, the type of HPV that leads to warts is only associated with minor abnormalities of the cervix and does not cause cervical cancer. Warts are more common in women of your age group.

Although the virus that causes warts cannot be cured, in most cases it will go away on its own within a two-year period. In 20 to 30 per cent of women they will disappear in three months. If the warts persist for a long period of time, there are many treatments that can remove them. These include medications that can be prescribed by your doctor, medications that can be applied by your doctor or a minor surgical procedure such as you mentioned. However, in some cases they can appear again after treatment.

Warts cannot become HIV, but both are sexually-transmitted infections and certain behaviours can reduce your risk of these infections. These include abstinence, which is most effective, followed by a long-term monogamous relationship (that is one sexual partner). Condoms may also help to prevent the spreading of genital warts. The vaccine Gardasil that is now available in the United States does protect against the two most common types of HPV that causes warts.

Genital warts are very contagious and can be transmitted by genital contact whether or not penetration is involved. Therefore, it is very likely that given the length of your current relationship, your partner does have or had the infection. However, he may have a subclinical infection; this means an infection that can only be found with special tests and not by a doctor's regular physical exam.

Nevertheless, it is still possible that you got infected in a previous relationship and the virus could have been living in your body for a long time before the warts appeared.This time period between when you first got infected and when the signs or symptoms first appear is called an incubation period. The usual incubation period for genital warts is three months.

Since genital warts cannot be diagnosed by blood tests, the doctor is testing you for other conditions and you should ask your doctor about the specific purpose of the tests. Hopefully, this explanation will help you to be less afraid of having the tests done. I hope that I have eased some of your fears.