I have another wart outbreak after 4 1/2 years ;(

[braddy88]

hello doctors here or anyone, please answer me

i was diagnosed with HPV about 4 and half years ago and I had lots of genital warts back then. My doctor removed the warts with electrocautery and I have had some other wart outbreaks through my first and second years. I have always visited doctors to ask for different opinions and ask them to remove my warts every time I had one. I asked lots of people online and read different websites and it seems like they always say "90% of people would be able to suppress their HPV virus after 2-3 years and they shouldn't have another wart outbreak later" but I start to feel they all lie to me....last time I had wart outbreak was early last year so it's been more than 8 months...but then I got another wart outbreak just today...it feels so heartbreaking. I know I can just go to another doctor and get my warts removed...but what's the point if my body can never really force the virus to stay dormant? :( I am not naive doc, I know virus will always stay in our body, but it's just feel very depressing knowing that I have this virus for almost 5 years and yet it always manage to comeback somehow :( Please tell me, what to do?

PS: I'm totally abstain from any sexual encounter with anyone. My only sexual experience since 4 and half years ago has been always masturbating with my hand and nothing else.

[braddy88]

hallo howardH, thanks for the answer. btw i came back to this page because recently I read something interesting: arstechnica.com/science/2015/02/new-hpv-vaccine-is-effective-against-9-strains-of-the-virus/

my first question, every time I read about HPV vaccine, they say it's not effective for those who are already infected. Thing is, how do I know which strain I'm infected with? If let's say i'm infected with strain 18, doesn't it mean it's still a good idea to get the vaccine considering I would be "protected" against other strains in the future? why do people keep saying it's not effective for those who are already infected IF it can protect us for other strains?

second question, if the vaccine "train" our body to fight off the virus, why is it ineffective for me to get the vaccine just because I already have the virus? According to my story above, I assume that my immune system hasn't been able to fight the virus effectively, logically getting vaccinated should help my immune system to fight this virus, right?

Thank you

[HowardH]

You also have another misconceptions, in regard to your decision not to date. People with "weak" immune system are generally not more likely to catch infections if exposed. Even people with end-stage AIDS don't catch infections more readily than others-- their problem is worse symptoms and more danger if infected, but not increased susceptibility. And your immune system is normal anyway, as noted above.

[HowardH]

Failure of warts to clear says absolutely nothing about the "strength" of the immune system.  It is unknown why some people have problems with recurrent or persistent HPV infections, but their immune systems test out as 100% normal, and they have no other diseases or health problems that suggest a weak or abnormal immune system. Unfortunately, by the same token, there is nothing known that will improve the clearance of warts. A generally healthy lifestyle (rest, diet, exercise, etc) is of course a good thing, but there's no evidence it will "strengthen" the immune system or have any benefit in clearing HPV/warts. It's just a matter of time. And with time, I'm sure warts eventually will stop recurring.

Sorry if that's unsatisfying, but I see no reason not to agree with your doctor that your situation "generally is good".

[braddy88]

hello HowardH and other members, so i just came back from my doctor 2 hours ago.

it's actually a bit strange situation but i glad i shaved last night. So here's my story...after i suspected 3 random bumps on the left side of my penis last Sunday (hence my original post here), i decided to shave last night just in case there's another "wart" on my pubic hair area. I spontaneously remember last time my doctor confirmed i had warts (early last year), there were 3 warts on my genital hair area, so i decided to shave again. it's not like i dont shave at all but usually i only shave once every 3-4 months.

After i shaved, I was surprised because I found another bump that looked like wart which was located exactly where it was the last time my doctor treated it. This one looked much more convincing than the 3 bumps I mentioned earlier because the color is dark unlike the earlier bumps where they were just a bit reddish. Strange thing is, those 3 bumps became smaller day by day and looked like they "blend" with the penis color and not bit reddish anymore. I can hardly notice these 3 bumps except when I use some flashlight and had to see it from some angle.

extra note, actually the colors of these 3 bumps from Sunday have been always transparent/the same with penis skin color but back in Sunday they were also a bit reddish so I suspected they were like infection back then, but now strangely they don't anymore. they are now hardly noticeable like i mentioned earlier and when i try to "stretch" the area around them when my penis is flaccid, I can hardly see anything. But anyway I went to a skin doctor to make sure of everything, including the new "suspect" i found after I shaved.

The doctor then analyzed all of the suspected warts and he dismissed the 3 bumps from Sunday as "nothing". Unfortunately the newer suspect where I found after I shaved was confirmed as a wart. once again the doctor treated my wart and gave me prescribed vitamin along with ointment for post-treatment care.

Conclusion is, the 3 bumps that made me worried last Sunday is actually nothing <- according to my doctor. However because I shaved last night, I actually found a confirmed wart on my pubic hair area. Now it has been treated but I got a strange feeling because in case I didn't fully shaved I wouldn't had found that wart. Another strange thing is that I only have 1 small wart and nothing else (which is the first time in my case I had just 1 single wart).

The doctor actually said that my case generally is good. He said that i'm good because I only had one small wart. Still though I feel unhappy considering i've had this for 4 and half years. I mean ofcourse my wart outbreak is light now and not severe because it's been a very long time. Considering other people probably never had any wart outbreak after 4 years, I still feel unsatisfied.

Now regarding future treatment, I would like to know what works best to keep my immune system as good as I can to prevent another wart outbreak (and increase my general wellbeing). Doctor give me multivitamin but I doubt it'll work because I have read lots of stuffs about chemical multivitamin don't help much. I know i need to eat healthier which is hard to do considering I dont have much time to buy my own foods and cook them. I know I need to sleep earlier because almost every day I always sleep at 2 AM (despite I have enough sleep, 6-8 hours a day). I know i need to workout more (i only workout 2-3x a day). But apart of these, is there anything I need to do to help my immune system fighting the virus? Thanks!

[braddy88]

hello howardH, sorry for a slow response. i had no time to go to doctor because i was busy with lots of things in working days but I have plan to go to doctor today (friday night) so yes i will definitely get a professional confirmation.

first of all, about me being familiar with typical appearance of warts, yes you are correct i should be familiar already with them. nevertheless, based on my past outbreaks some of them look different one to another. for instance, the first time i had warts, most of them were "white" in colors. last time i had outbreak before this one, there were 3 warts that looked "dark" in color but the doctor still confirmed they were warts and treated them. That's why sometimes i get confused if there's some "spots" on my genital area, whether they are warts or just harmless random stuff.

back during my 1st and 2nd year living with HPV, i have always visited a skin doctor to confirm wherever i suspect there was a wart, and yes lots of times the doctor dismissed it was a wart, so there were plenty of cases where i "misdiagnosed" myself but this time I just feel more certain. I feel like i dont care anymore whether they are real warts or not, i will just deal with it.

The thing that make me feel stressful is not the warts themselves but rather the fact that my antibody is extremely slow in fighting the virus. I can already accept the fact that HPV is part of my body now but I still cannot accept the fact that my immune system seems to be weaker compared to most people...

and no the reason why I am abstain from sex is not actually because I am afraid to infect others with HPV but rather because of two things. First, because I was broke few years ago so I dedicated most of my time trying to get my new business going. I will just admit it that I don't feel confident enough going to ask a girl out just for her to find out later that I cannot even pay for a bit expensive dinner. That's reason number one.

Second reason is simply because I'm actually afraid i would get something else. you are correct that  lots of people have HPV already but that's not something i'm afraid of. How if one day I get infected with HSV? How if one day I get infected with hepatitis? That's something that I often ask myself. However it's just a minor reason. The biggest reason is not related to health at all but financial and self-confident (I admit that).

I start to feel that the stressful years i have had maybe made my immune system weak? I mean i do sleep at 2 AM most of the times. Not because I'm busy or anything but usually because I have lots of thoughts and generally I do feel unhappy with my life. Is longtime stress like this can make our immune system weak?

[HowardH]

First, make sure the diagnosis is correct. It sounds like you must be quite familiar with the typical appearances of genital warts. Still, it would be a good idea to get professional confirmation, especially if there is anything at all atypical about it. (Having only a single wart is itself somewhat atypica.)

Second, the virus doesn't necessarily "always stay in our body".  HPV DNA probably persists in most people, but that isn't necessarily the same thing.

Assuming it's a wart, don't feel like the Lone Ranger. The 90% figure is probably about right, or maybe more like 95%. But that still leaves 5-10%, which in the US translates to millions of people who will have delayed recurrence of warts or other HPV infections.

Finally, I hope this isn't the reason for your sexual abstention. Warts are an unpleasant inconvenience, not an important health risk. Many potential partners are entirely willing to take the risk of getting genital warts. Many will have already been infected with the same HPV type you have and now immune to it, and others may choose to be vaccinated, which would be highly effective. A most harmless bit of DNA that happens to exploit human intimacy for its own replication should be allowed to (and need not) seriously interfere with love, romance, and rewarding sex!