Passing Condyloma On??

[FLA 222]

I am about to be in a sexual relationship with a lady that I have met a few months ago. I have had a few genital warts removed two months ago and they have not re-appeared. I am reluctant to have sexual intercourse with this lady for fear of passing the HPV on to her. Will I ever be able to have sex again with someone without fear of passing the HPV on? I have also been told that one should wear condoms but condoms are not gauranteed to protect her from being affected. Worried and confused!

[FLA 222]

Thanks so much. Your comments are very much appreciated!

[LightningF]

fla222, you should have waited longer time before engaging in any sexual activity. It's common for genital warts to come back once every few months but it's also common for someone who never had any genital wart recurrence (only one outbreak then never had it again).

Being 2 months wart-free doesn't mean much. You have to wait until you are 6 months wart-free to make sure your antibody has suppressed the virus. Basically there are 3 states of HPV:

1. when the virus is active and causing genital warts
2. when the virus is "hiding" and doesnt cause warts
3. when your antibody has "caught" the virus and suppressed it to undetectable level

At the moment I must say you are in the state no. 2. In order to reach state no. 3, you have to wait. Who knows one month from now you will get another wart outbreak? You will feel sorry for the lady.

HPV is not something like HSV and yes you can clear up the virus. However, it needs time. Just keep treating the warts (whenever they come back) and one day they will stop recur. When? Nobody knows. There's a chance you have suppressed the virus, there's a chance you have not yet. The only answer is to wait to 6 months wart-free situation and you can freely have sex with this lady you are talking about.

If you can't wait to have sex before then, make sure you disclose your information to her and tell her all the important information about HPV. If she feels OK getting warts from you, then why not? But if she doesnt feel ok, you can offer her 2 options. Tell her to wait (until you have cleared up your HPV infection) or take HPV vaccine so she'd be immune.