Dr Phil: You and your warts

Not at all. Warts were categorized into four types as far back as the first century AD, and wart therapists used to wander the streets of Rome sucking them out and, if that failed, biting them off.

 

It's hard to say. Some people are just prone to them and if you've had one, you're three times more likely than a wart-virgin to have another. Also, some occupations seem to encourage warts e.g. fishmongering, poultry processing and butchering.

 

Not exactly. Warts are infections with different varieties of the Human Papilloma Virus or HPV. This hardy bug can survive in temperatures as low as 25°C and has been found alive and well on warm, wet surfaces such as the sides of Tooting Lido. The virus gets into the body through cracks in the skin and can just hang round doing nothing for months or years without you realising it's there. Then one day, it decides to multiply and out pops the wart.

 

About a fifth vanish in 3 months, a third are gone by 6 months and half by 2 years. If you're unlucky, it may last for 5 years or so. If you have a good immune system, it will eventually see off the wart, and only those whose body defences are weakened (e.g. with cancer or AIDS) suffer incurable warts. Once the wart has gone, your immune system will resist infection with that particular strain for about 4 years, but alas will not protect you against infection from other strains.

 

More than 120.

 

No. Warts come in a wide variety of appearances and body sites. The common knobble on the fingers and back of hand is down to HPV types 1-4, usually HPV2. This also causes the flattened wart, or verruca. It's flat because pressure from the foot makes it grow in rather than out, and this can be a bit painful. The filiform wart is an unsightly brush like protuberance, usually on the face, and the plane wart is small, flat and harder to spot. Periungual warts occur in the nail margins of people who suck their fingers until the skin cracks, and can distort the nail. Mosaic warts cause pretty patterns on the feet and are very hard to treat and anogenital wart viruses are sexually transmitted. Some cause unsightly warts, particularly HPV types 6 and 11, and some can cause cervical cancer, particularly types 6 and 18.

 

Yes. The government has just introduced a vaccination programme for schoolgirls using Cervarix, which protects against the cervical cancer causing viruses only. If you want protection against genital warts too (which are much more common than cervical cancer), you have to pay privately for another vaccine, Gardasil (which is what I've done for my daughter). Both vaccines work best before any sexual exposure, which is why they're given early. Once you've had sex, it's very likely you'll be exposed to HPV, which makes vaccination much less effective.

 

Condoms are great for stopping infections like gonorrhoea and Chlamydia but wart virus is spread by skin to skin contact and condoms are only about 50% effective at blocking HPV.

 

That's a tough call. Genital warts are itchy, unsightly and infectious so it's worth getting these treated although it can be a messy, protracted, uncomfortable business. They can be frozen off but it's more common to use a paint or cream that you'll need to get on prescription (and you may not be able to use if you're pregnant). It's worth getting a check up for other sexually transmitted infections too, because they tend to go round in gangs.

Warts away from your privates nearly always go away on their own but over the counter treatments are available that can speed the process up (although you can't use them on your face). Wart paints, ointments and gels contain either salicylic acid to break down keratin or lactic acid to disrupt the wart's acid balance. Treatment requires a daily 10-minute warm water pre-soak, drying, smoothing the wart with a pumice stone and applying the lotion. After 12 weeks of daily treatment, 80% of warts will go but, as you can imagine, very few sufferers stay the course. You can try strapping your warts for 2 months with duct tape, as described elsewhere on this site.

 

Warts can be surgically scraped or cut off, although this method has largely been replaced by cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen at -196°C. It's sprayed or dabbed on with a cotton bud, and up to six treatments a fortnight apart will see off most hand warts. GPs used to do this but most don't consider it to be part of the NHS. However, freezing aerosols are now available from pharmacies. Whatever you do, don't try to scrape warts off yourself with a knife or a cheese grater. It could all end up as an embarrassing visit to casualty.

 

Most people are told to wait until the warts have been successfully treated, and then use condoms for the following three months. However, this isn't a perfect science. Most of us have been exposed to wart virus at some time but only a few of us get warts, and even after treatment the virus doesn't go away but sits under the skin. Condoms are always worth wearing, preferably on your head, but there isn't a foolproof way of stopping the spread of genital warts other than avoiding all skin-to-skin contact, which is why some sexual health specialists advocate vaccinating boys, as well as girls, against HPV.

 

Hypnosis has been shown to hasten the disappearance of warts and reduce their recurrence rate, probably by some strange affect on the immune system. Folk remedies remain very popular, especially for hand warts. There are four types of charm. (1) Wasting the wart is rubbed with something that is then discarded. As it decays, so does the wart (allegedly). (2) Incantations you can make up your own or get someone else in to incant for you. (3) Specifics the wart is rubbed with the flavor of the month remedy (Kate Winslet's tears, a widow's wedding ring, early morning spit, etc). And (4) transference the wart is rubbed with something left for someone else to find. The finder then keeps the warts as well.

 

 

Dr Phil Hammond is a medical doctor, comedian and commentator on health issues. http://drphilhammond.com

Written by: Dr Phil Hammond
Edited by: Dr Phil Hammond
Last updated: Friday, August 13th 2010

Add a comment

A problem shared is a problem halved: help others by sharing your frustrations or successes at tackling your health problem.

We have noticed that many of your queries are actually answered on the website, so please read carefully before submitting a comment. As all comments are moderated, there will be a delay before your comment appears. Please note that we cannot respond to individual requests for feedback.

Display Name Age: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899 100+ Sex: Male Female Country: Select Country United States United Kingdom Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, The Democratic Republic of The Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and The Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand Timor-leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Comment:

Submit

Discussion content reflects the view of individual participants only. Health Press Limited bear no responsibility for accuracy of participant comments and will bear no legal liability for discussion results. Comments will be moderated before posting and Health Press Limited reserves the right to delete any material. See About our site for our moderation policy

Comments on this article

Posted by Optional on 05/03/2012 at 06:01

I went to medical check up just now at women's specialist and the doc said I infected with genital warts around the vulva. I got the injection just now. will I get infection of cervical cancer? Doc suggested me to get HPV vaccine, is this vaccine still effective to me, since I got HPV.

Posted by sophia d on 30/06/2011 at 08:50

i m still tryin to come to term with my warts.......

Posted by Confused on 24/05/2011 at 06:15

I was diagnosied with hpv in 2007.I get big csyic they take forever to come to a white head.do I have acne or wartz I have them on the outer part on my vigina.

Posted by Optional on 23/11/2010 at 09:37

How do I remove the pink wart atachet to the inside of the tip of my penis?

Posted by Optional on 23/10/2010 at 08:00

How do they get rid of the ones that are on the cervix or the vaginal wall?

Posted by Optional on 05/10/2010 at 07:31

I have been to the doctors about some little flat warts on the top of my feet is there any treatment to get rid of them. Mrs Neve

Posted by Optional on 29/09/2010 at 03:42

i have warts on my neck. they are like little flaps of skin.would i be able to get rid of them like they were ordinary warts?

Posted by Optional on 15/07/2010 at 10:19

i was told i had genital wartsin 2002 i had them treated rite away and have not had any back but im worried as ive met a new partner and am scared he will get them from me please advise me since not having them back does that mean im clear of them now ??