I’m a 30-something year old health professional and here is my story.
About two years ago I thought that I might have a genital wart. I had been shaving my
pubicPubic lice region and I noticed what seemed to be a very tiny skin tag at the base of my
penisCancer - penis
Curvature of the penis
Penis care (uncircumcised)
Penis pain shaft. I wanted to leave it alone, but it got the best of me because by then I had slept with about 11
womenWomen's way (mostly protected) so I went to see a dermatologist. He looked at it, told me that it was probably a skin tag, and snipped it off. I was much relieved by his news and I considered myself to be wart free.
Now, a few weeks ago (after sleeping with another 8
womenWomen's way, half unprotected at one time or another) I noticed that the “tag” had reappeared in what I believe is the same
spotBirthmarks - pigmented
Liver spots
Measles, koplik spots - close-up
Mongolian blue spots, only about 1-2 mm max in size. I vaguely remember feeling something there months ago, but didn’t really attend to it. Last week I went back to the same derm and had it removed and sent for histology (pushing my luck) and lo and behold it’s actually a . . . .wart.
Which leaves me to ponder the question of what do I do now? I’m single and I want to be responsible. I get tested for STD’s (including Herpes) and I’ve always been negative. No one that I’ve ever slept with has mentioned having warts before or after sleeping with me (and I actually keep in touch with a
fairFair skin cancer risks number of my partners).
So my questions are:
(1) Is it my ethical responsibility to mention my 1 mm wart to anyone I should sleep with for at least the next six months? My derm seemed to believe that after the wound healed I should be fine (and that the inflammation of healing should help clear the virus).
(2) Who is to say that six months is even long enough considering the damn thing popped back into my life two years later?
(3) Is it odd that no one I have slept with has come down with warts (as far as I know)?
(4) Whenever I think of genital warts I think of those big cauliflower warts pictures (condyloma acuminatum). Are those actually the exception rather than the rule (occurring more often in people who are immunocompromised in one way or another) and do most people get little ditzel’s like mine that they don’t even notice half the time?
Thanks for your time. I just need to get this all sorted out.
You referred to either HPV 6 or 11 as the cause of my wart, but couldn't it have been caused by any of the low risk subtypes?
Any particular things that I should do to promote virus clearance? Are there any prescription topical preparations that I can apply to my skin in that area that might promote the destruction of any lurking virus by my immune system?
Are the risk factor for 6 and 11 any different than the other HPVs or was it just my bad luck?
Or am I reading into this too much and should I just consider them to be a random HPV strain and treat them no differently?