Understanding Genital Warts and HPV

Are genital warts ever dangerous?

Human papillomavirus, which causes genital warts, have

lots and lots of subtypes. And HPV subtypes 6 and

11 cause over 90% of genital warts, but these

particular subtypes do not increase your risk of cancer.

However, HPV subtypes 16 and 18 cause

many cancers, particularly cervical, anal, penile,

vulval, and throat cancers. Where am I going with this?

HPV virus causes lots of health problems, and there are proven ways to

prevent it. So how do you treat genital warts?

As with any virus, the best way is to never get it in the first place,

and you can do this by having the HPV vaccine.

Thankfully, children can now get the vaccine,

which wasn't around in my day.

I wish that it was. I strongly encourage my

patients to get their children vaccinated from the age of 10, as it is the

best way to prevent against future cancers and genital wa-