HPV help

i am a gay male. my boyfriend has had a few small genital warts and his doctor said they looked like molluscum.. we had protected sex a couple of times about a month ago (we are apart for the summer) and he would cover them with a bandaid.. anyways in the past week i have had two small warts on the base of my penis and my dermatologist said they look more like hpv and froze them off.. as of now they are only two small red/purple areas and i keep them covered with a bandaid at all times..

1) Just wondering whether on not it is hpv or molluscum should i expect more to appear and will this be a life long wart/infectious problem? and should i expect scarring?
2)should me and my partner obstain from sex from now on unitil all signs of warts are gone (covered or uncovered) (bc i feel like hpv is more serious than molluscum? and how about how long could that be until neither of us is no longer infectious? would we keep giving eachother more and more warts?
3) can i spread the warts around on my own body after they have been frozen off? and how long should they stay covered?
4) should i put anything like rubbing alcohol on the area?

please help! thanks.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Warts are tumours or growths of the skin caused by infection with Human Papillomavirus (HPV).They are contagious when in contact with the skin of an infected person. HPV can last for several years without a symptom and if an individual has unprotected sex with an infected partner, there is a 70% chance that he or she will also become infected. The immune system eventually clears the virus through interleukins, which recruit interferons, which slow viral replication. Although there are methods to treat visible warts, which could reduce infectivity but there is no way to predict whether they will grow or disappear.

So it will be best to avoid physical contact with visible warts and have protected sex. It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.