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wart/HPV/Skin tag???
I noticed a tiny growth, about the size of a small pimple, at the base of my penis(just above my penis in the pubic hair) about 2 years ago. I thought it was a skin tag at first and didn't worry about it. Recently I noticed other small similar growths popping up nearby, only in the pubic hair. Some of them have grown but none are bigger than this letter on the screen......O......
They are pretty much skin color and soft, circular in shape. I sometimes get warts on my hands, but these do not look like those. I am sexually active and am wondering if this is a threat to me or a partner? What could it be?
I think I most likely have HPV, since it seems like most do these days, plus my previous partner had HPV. Could these be HPV warts? What would the treatment be if they are? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
They are pretty much skin color and soft, circular in shape. I sometimes get warts on my hands, but these do not look like those. I am sexually active and am wondering if this is a threat to me or a partner? What could it be?
I think I most likely have HPV, since it seems like most do these days, plus my previous partner had HPV. Could these be HPV warts? What would the treatment be if they are? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
If you have gotten warts on your hands when you were young is it easier to have genital warts if exposed...like something already in your blood? I'm 33 and have had what I thought were skin tags in my genital area for many many years and heard something recently that they could be genital warts so I started looking it up. I don't know what HPV is...if I have genital warts and not a skin tag and have had them for 10 years +, does that mean I've had an STD all this time?
also, if you get warts on your hands, you have HPV. It's just not genital HPV (and no, they can't cause genital warts in any way).
I noticed what I thought was a skin tag in the same area (although I'm female). I was convinced it was a skin tag, and then I got a few more...and I still thought they were skin tags because if you get one you're prone to get more. But the bad news is, even if they are skin tags, if you're under middle-aged, then it's most likely a sign of HPV anyway - the strains that cause genital warts. And if they're almost as big as the O (although the size of that depends on your computer screen resolution), then they're probably not skin tags either (skin tags usually don't get much bigger than a pin head). So I eventually got checked out and they were in fact genital warts...at first I was so upset crying and crying I am only 19 and I thought I would have it for the rest of my life. But that's not true!! I still haven't treated them (I was diagnosed less than a week ago), but I understand now that genital warts are NOT as bad as I first thought. Go get them looked at, and best of luck to you!!
From what I understand, what you describe could well be HPV. Problem is, it's hard to tell, and that goes even for Doctors. Since there are no commercially available HPV tests, the only diagnosis you can get is by visual inspection from a Doctor. Beware though, they're relying only on their judgement, which is much less exact than the kinds of tests used for other STD's. In my own case I went to an Infectious disease specialist at a university clinic and then a PA for a prominent dermatologist, and both said it was nothing. So did an RN involved in an HPV research study I'm involved in. Even the actual dermatologist (I beleive he's actually a dermopathologist) wasn't sure I had anything. Only a biopsy said that I did, and these results were eventually confirmed by the research study.
Be that as it may, this isn't necessarily a big deal. As Dr. Handsfield is at pains to stress, HPV is so common as to be unavoidable, and in all but the rarest cases, largely harmless. Though this is true, those with some kind of visual symptoms (such as noticably irregular skin texture across a large are of their genital skin, even if these don't technically count as "warts") are beset with the added psychological distress of really KNOWING that one has HPV. Other people also seem to be more distressed by genital warts, mainly because the usually asymptomatic High-Risk strains are more of an abstraction, one is told they have them, but sees no evidence.
Now the good news. Warts, no matter how severe, are treatable, and HPV does not appear to be permanent in the way that Herpes is. In all but the rarest cases, the virus is eventually tamed by the body and usually is no longer contagious after about 1 to 2 years. Treatments can help this process along, but the objective of treatment seems to be largely cosmetic. It gets rid of those distressing visible warts. There are many kinds of treatments available, and many websites offer much better info than I can. I recomend something like the CDC or the ASHa. They'll be clinical and offical, but you won't get any B.S. attempt to sell you an ineffective treatment or cure. Be aware though, even though HPV is not worth considering a serious lifelong problem, treating warts can still be quite the ordeal. It can sometimes take multiple treatments.
Be that as it may, this isn't necessarily a big deal. As Dr. Handsfield is at pains to stress, HPV is so common as to be unavoidable, and in all but the rarest cases, largely harmless. Though this is true, those with some kind of visual symptoms (such as noticably irregular skin texture across a large are of their genital skin, even if these don't technically count as "warts") are beset with the added psychological distress of really KNOWING that one has HPV. Other people also seem to be more distressed by genital warts, mainly because the usually asymptomatic High-Risk strains are more of an abstraction, one is told they have them, but sees no evidence.
Now the good news. Warts, no matter how severe, are treatable, and HPV does not appear to be permanent in the way that Herpes is. In all but the rarest cases, the virus is eventually tamed by the body and usually is no longer contagious after about 1 to 2 years. Treatments can help this process along, but the objective of treatment seems to be largely cosmetic. It gets rid of those distressing visible warts. There are many kinds of treatments available, and many websites offer much better info than I can. I recomend something like the CDC or the ASHa. They'll be clinical and offical, but you won't get any B.S. attempt to sell you an ineffective treatment or cure. Be aware though, even though HPV is not worth considering a serious lifelong problem, treating warts can still be quite the ordeal. It can sometimes take multiple treatments.
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Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
