Last Updated on July 29, 2021 by Nancy Carteron, MD, FACR
STI Symptoms – Genital Warts
Most people with an HPV infection will not develop visible warts and the virus will go away on its own.
Often they are so tiny, or so difficult to see, that you don’t even know you have them. This means you may not know whether you or your partner(s) have the virus.
If warts do appear, this can happen from three weeks to many months or even years, after coming into contact with the virus. You might notice small, fleshy growths, bumps or skin changes which may appear anywhere in or on the genital or anal area.
Genital warts can be found on the penis, scrotum, vulva (entire outer genital area), vagina (inside or out), anus (inside or out) or groin. It is also possible — but not very likely — to have them in your mouth, on the lips, tongue, and palate, or in the throat.
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Genital warts are usually harmless and often go away on their own. They may be:
- Skin color, or red or white in appearance
- Flat (smooth on the skin)
- Raised (like a bump or skin growth)
- Single (only one wart)
- Multiple (more than one in the same area or many areas)
- Small or large
- Cauliflower-like lumps
Genital warts are usually painless but may occasionally itch and cause some inflammation.
Other Genital warts symptoms are rare, but may include:
- Increased dampness in the genital area near the warts
- Increased vaginal discharge
- Genital itching
- Vaginal bleeding during or after sex
- They may cause bleeding from the anus or the urethra
- If your flow of urine is distorted this may be a sign of warts in the urethra
- Itching or burning sensation and occasional minor bleeding as a result of anal sex or bowel movement
They often grow more rapidly during pregnancy or when a person’s immune system is weakened by:
- Chemotherapy
- Diabetes
- HIV/AIDS
- Hodgkin’s disease
- Taking anti-rejection drugs after an organ transplant
- Genital Warts Briefs
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- STIs in People with Penises
- STIs in People with Vulvas/Vaginas
- STI? What Now?
References
- Symptoms
- Chow, Eric PF, et al. “Ongoing decline in genital warts among young heterosexuals 7 years after the Australian human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme.” Sex Transm Infect 91.3 (2015): 214-219.
- Suligoi, Barbara, et al. “Prevalence and incidence of external genital warts in a sample of Italian general female population.” BMC infectious diseases 17.1 (2017): 126.
- Bartels, Anne, Michael Crandall, and Leah Spring. “Recalcitrant genital papules: this patient was initially told he had genital warts, but the appearance of the lesions, and the presence of a rash on his trunk and extremities, suggested another diagnosis.” Journal of Family Practice 66.7 (2017): 457-461.
- Schöfer, Helmut, et al. “Sinecatechins and imiquimod as proactive sequential therapy of external genital and perianal warts in adults.” International journal of STD & AIDS 28.14 (2017): 1433-1443.
- Edwards, Sarah K. “Genital rash (including warts and infestations).” Medicine 46.6 (2018): 325-330.
- Testing
- Aung, Ei T., et al. “Detection of human papillomavirus in urine among heterosexual men in relation to location of genital warts and circumcision status.” Sex Transm Infect 94.3 (2018): 222-225.
- Boda, Daniel, et al. “HPV strain distribution in patients with genital warts in a female population sample.” Oncology letters 12.3 (2016): 1779-1782.
- Hu, Zhili, et al. “Dynamics of HPV viral loads reflect the treatment effect of photodynamic therapy in genital warts.” Photodiagnosis and photodynamic therapy 21 (2018): 86-90.
- Thomas, Réjean, et al. “P3. 189 Recurrence of human papillomavirus external genital wart infection among high-risk adults in montrÉal, quÉbec.” (2017): A163-A163.
- Zhu, Cansheng, et al. “Prevalence and distribution of HPV types in genital warts in Xi’an, China: a prospective study.” BMJ open 9.5 (2019): e023897.
- Treatment
- Park, Ina U., Camille Introcaso, and Eileen F. Dunne. “Human papillomavirus and genital warts: a review of the evidence for the 2015 centers for disease control and prevention sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines.” Clinical Infectious Diseases 61.suppl_8 (2015): S849-S855.
- Yuan, Jianwei, et al. “Genital warts treatment: beyond imiquimod.” Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics 14.7 (2018): 1815-1819.
- Abu-Naser, Samy S., and Mones M. Al-Hanjori. “An expert system for men genital problems diagnosis and treatment.” (2016).
- Firooz, A., et al. “The efficacy and safety of other cryotherapy compounds for the treatment of genital warts: a randomized controlled trial.” Journal of Dermatological Treatment 30.2 (2019): 176-178.
- Das, Suchibrata, et al. “Auto-wart inoculation: An easy and effective treatment of multiple, recalcitrant and genital warts.” Journal of Pakistan Association of Dermatology 26.3 (2017): 229-234.
- Prevention
- Park, Ina U., Camille Introcaso, and Eileen F. Dunne. “Human papillomavirus and genital warts: a review of the evidence for the 2015 centers for disease control and prevention sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines.” Clinical Infectious Diseases 61.suppl_8 (2015): S849-S855.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Epidemiology and prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases.” Washington DC Public Health Foundation 2 (2015): 20-2.
- Stanley, Margaret. “Preventing cervical cancer and genital warts–How much protection is enough for HPV vaccines?.” Journal of Infection 72 (2016): S23-S28.
- Sharma, M., S. Sy, and J. J. Kim. “The value of male human papillomavirus vaccination in preventing cervical cancer and genital warts in a low‐resource setting.” BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology 123.6 (2016): 917-926.
- Steben, Marc. “A Very Common Intimate Concern:“Will My Genital Warts Ever Stop Recurring?”.” (2018): 682-684.
- Transmission
- Chow, Eric Pui Fung, et al. “Ratio of anogenital warts between different anatomical sites in homosexual and heterosexual individuals in Australia, 2002–2013: implications for susceptibility of different anatomical sites to genital warts.” Epidemiology & Infection 143.7 (2015): 1495-1499.
- Mohammed, Hamish, et al. “Increase in sexually transmitted infections among men who have sex with men, England, 2014.” Emerging infectious diseases 22.1 (2016): 88.
- Ma, Liang, et al. “Distribution of human papillomavirus genotypes (2014–2016) in women with genital warts at a sexually transmitted disease clinic in Beijing, China.” Future Virology 13.2 (2018): 111-117.
- Schöfer, Helmut, et al. “Sinecatechins and imiquimod as proactive sequential therapy of external genital and perianal warts in adults.” International journal of STD & AIDS 28.14 (2017): 1433-1443.
- Grennan, Dara. “Genital Warts.” Jama 321.5 (2019): 520-520.
