Info on Genital Warts

Hi Dr Rockoff!  I have written to you before and once again am to settle or confirm my fears.  I am very paranoid about genital warts (and usually herpes, but not so much this week..it's that bad, really) I live in fear every day and can't seem to chill even after seeing doctors.  I guess I am looking for as much info on genital warts as possible.  I have heard they grow and spread fairly quickly (how quickly??).  Also, as a woman, would an abnormal pap smear usually show up if warts (or the virus) were present?  Are warts contagious once they are removed??  I know you retain the virus but how likely is it you can pass it along??
  I have two kind of bump/fleshy places near my vaginal opening and I would say they have been there at least 9mos to a year I noticed there was at least one YEARS ago,smaller but I never worried then...those were the days...Sometimes you can't see them that well as they are more on the "inner" external opening.  Some days they look more pronounced and some days they look smaller.  They are very similar in texture and color to my actual "opening"..which is fleshy and whiter. But they are certainly apart from that.  I would have never noticed them if I wasn't obsessed.  Anyway, I have been through several exams where I have been checked for warts and vinegar has been applied also and never once has anyone told me they look like warts. I was checked out once again about a month ago or more.  But I never mentioned them directly before to any clinician to check out so then I worry that they just missed them.  But they are easy for the most part to see, especially the way they check down there during an exam..they seem to look everywhere.
  My sexual history is one person on and off over the period of nine years, we use birth control pills only.  He was examined earlier this year and has never had a wart or any suspicious bumps on his penis or thereabouts.  He has been with other partners (not promiscuously or excessively), one without protection over 2 years ago when we were broke up, but that was a monogamous relationship.  
  I am beside myself all the time! I would really appreciate if you could answer the above questions as well as these as they are ones I long for answers on constantly. Are there other bumps out there that look like warts??? Is it normal to have some variation around the opening?  If I did have warts, is it likely that my partner and I carry the same things (ie..I got it from him most likely, or like a toilet seat)??  If I had a wart and got it removed, am I in the same situation as someone who has been exposed to warts and carries the virus but who doesn't have it or would I be more contagious??  
I have SO many promiscuous friends who never use protection and never worry, yet I am the one in constant panic and the one that will probably end up with something somehow! You are always so patient and from reading the posts, I see I am not the only worrier=)
Thanks
"STD Hypochondriac"

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Most of your questions can't be answered.  Even when theree's no question that there are warts present, it simply isn't knowable where they came from, how contagious they are, how contagious they are after removal, and so forth.

Obejectively, I feel you have nothing to worry about.  No one has definitively diagnosed you or your partner as having warts.  You'e have many negative exams, and so forth.

Frankly, your probelm seems to be not warts, but obsessional worry.  Since reassurance and information have not solved your problem, I feel strongly that you should see a psychiatrist about ways to deal with your obsessions.  These are clearly cosnuming and crippling you.  

You deserve to get the help you need to get on with things.  You have done more than due diligence to determine that you don't have warts.  Now you need help in using that information to your advantage.

I wish you luck and success.

Dr. Rockoff