Genital Warts: Symptoms, Causes and Treatment
Genital warts are both unaesthetic and highly problematic skin conditions, affecting men and women due to their high degree of contagiousness. Genital warts are viral infections that are usually contracted through sexual intercourse. They commonly occur in younger people, but no age group is spared. Genital warts are small, flesh-colored or gray growths that appear in the genital and anal area, can be asymptomatic, but most people experience itching or burning sensations, or even bleeding during intercourse.What does a Genital Wart look like?These genital warts appear as verrucous fleshy cauliflower growths which may be single or may appear in clusters. Sometimes they may coalesce or blend to form raised plaques. The individual lesions size may vary from a few millimetres to several centimetres.
These unsightly genital warts may be located anywhere in the genital area or perianal area including the mucosal surfaces. The colour of these may vary from pink papules to whitish or fleshy-coloured growths.Genital warts symptoms: Genital warts generally do not produce any symptoms as such but it can be painful, itchy and friable.The genital warts are caused by the HPV or Human Papillomavirus and are the most common sexually-transmitted diseases caused by it.
All warts and verruca are produced by HPV or Human Papillomavirus but type 6 and type 11 are typically responsible for genital warts. There are over 100 types of HPV and about 40 of them have the potential to infect the genital area. In men, genital warts can affect the urethra, penis, scrotum and rectal area, appearing as soft, raised growths that have a smooth or rough surface, but can also be flat with slight elevation above the skin surface. In women, genital warts have similar characteristics in terms of appearance and generally appear in the areas of the labia minora and vaginal opening. The difference between genital warts in men and women is that in the latter’s case, the HPV can cause alterations within the cervix and trigger in some rare cases, cervical cancer, thus their removal becomes mandatory. How can I prevent getting or spreading Genital warts? There are HPV vaccines in the name of Gardasil are available free from the NHS for girls from the age of 12 to 18 yrs. Vaccinating girls also protects boys from getting genital cancers and genital warts to some extent indirectly through herd immunity. This vaccine to girls protects them from cervical cancer in the future. This vaccination can also prevent some genital warts as may any barrier contraception such as condoms.
Across the UK there are many GU or GUM clinics that offer a free assessment and sexual health screening tests for those who may have concerns about such genital infections.At these centres, the genital warts men treatment options include the application of topical creams such as podophyllin, TCA, Imiquimod and liquid nitrogen therapy and these are generally painful and also one may need to have series such treatments to notice the visible improvement. If the warts are not responding to the conventional treatments, then do ask the treating doctor for options of surgical removal of these warts. It is interesting to note that after treatment of these warts they often resolve within 6 months and sometimes even without any interventional treatment, up to a third of these cases may resolve completely on their own.Where to get the best treatment for Genital warts?
At Renew Skin and Health Clinic in Leamington Spa, we advise you to undergo full sexual health screening tests at your local GUM/GU clinic before contacting us as we do not offer this at our clinic. Once you have been screened then you may contact us on 01926 422 454 or message on +44 7866 715 815 for a callback request. There is a consultation fee of £100 and the genital wart treatment cost is generally between £350 to £1250 depending upon severity.
Genital Warts Removal with Radiosurgery
The best results in genital warts removal have been achieved with radiosurgery, a non-surgical, minimally invasive, painless and safe procedure that also ensures far superior results as compared to any other treatment regarding the final cosmetic results. Radiosurgery uses radio waves energy to do the cutting, without requiring the highly invasive use of the scalpel. The radiosurgery electrode generates energy that encountering the water within the cells triggers resistance from its part and causes the cells to volatilize and destroy from within. The small electrode also provides the practitioners with great precision and combined with the fact that the radiosurgery device uses high-frequency radio waves and low temperatures, there is little to no damage whatsoever to the adjacent tissues.
The electrode is auto-sterilized during the procedure while also cauterizing the lesion, so bleeding is prevented or minimized and as a result, the healing process is enhanced and possible future infections are prevented. The practitioner at Renew Skin & Health Clinic also uses a local anesthetic so there is no actual pain felt by the patient, just a mild tingling discomfort sensation making the radiosurgery genital warts removal procedure an ideal type of treatment given the high sensitivity and vascularization of the areas.How long does the Genital warts treatment last?Radiosurgery for genital warts removal is performed rapidly, the procedure lasting for 15-20 minutes (also depending on the number of genital warts to be removed) and most patients are highly satisfied with the efficiency and cosmetic results of the treatment.
As with any other type of skin treatment, the GP or specialist at Renew Skin & Health Clinic will perform a thorough consultation, while also assessing the patient’s medical history and current health condition to prevent possible risks, complications, and side-effects and most importantly to ensure optimum medical and cosmetic results.We also use CO2 laser in the genital warts treatment. In that, we remove genital warts by vaporising them using a CO2 laser in just one visit. This advanced laser is a cutting edge technology used in removing various non-cancerous skin blemishes in just one visit under local anaesthesia.
