Warts are different in different people. In time, many warts disappear on their own. How Are Warts Treated? Warts can be treated in various ways: Over-the-counter medicines contain acids that are applied to the wart. The acids are peeling agents that remove the dead skin cells of the wart and cause the wart to eventually fall off. OTC treatments shouldn't be used on the face or genitals without consulting a doctor first as some of them may damage the skin.
Cryosurgery pronounced: kry-o-SUR-juh-ree is where a doctor freezes the wart with liquid nitrogen. This treatment is usually done in the doctor's office.
Laser surgery may be used for warts that are hard to remove. Most warts can handled at home: Soak the wart in warm water, and then remove dead skin on the surface of the wart with an emery board that's never going to be used for nails before applying the medicine. Be careful not to file into the normal skin around the wart. Keep the area of the wart covered while the medicine works.
Don't rub, scratch, or pick at the wart. Doing so could spread the virus to another part of your body or cause the wart to become infected. Don't share towels or other personal items with others. In women, most precancerous or cancerous cell changes associated with HPV infection occur on the cervix. This is because the cells of the cervix naturally undergo changes in an area called the transformation zone. This process can cause cervical cells to become abnormal when they are infected with HPV.
Infection with high-risk types of HPV increase the chance that a woman with HPV will develop abnormal cervical cell changes. It is important to have regular exams by your doctor. If your doctor finds abnormal cells on a Pap test, the cells can be treated to help prevent them from changing to cancer. Among people who receive anal sex, HPV infection of the anal canal is associated with an increased risk of anal cancer.
This risk may be especially high in men who also have HIV infection. It is not clear whether men who are infected with HPV on the penis are more likely to have precancerous or cancerous changes on the penis than men who are not infected.
Because HPV does cause cell changes, more research is being done to find out whether HPV increases the risk of penile cancer. In the United States, cancer of the penis is extremely rare. The presence of HPV and abnormal cell changes does not affect the outcome of the pregnancy. A pregnant woman who is infected with the type of HPV that causes genital warts may have more complicated warts than a woman who is not pregnant.
Genital warts may increase in size, bleed, or become infected with bacteria. Your doctor may recommend treatment. Warts may be passed on to the newborn, but this is rare. Things that increase a person's risk for getting a sexually transmitted infection, such as HPV and genital warts, include:. If you have a high-risk type of HPV and are using birth control pills for more than 5 years, research suggests that this can increase your risk of getting cervical cancer.
For more information, see the topic Cervical Cancer. A child can get genital warts in several ways. Any child who has genital warts needs to be evaluated by a doctor to find out the cause and to assess for possible sexual abuse. In rare cases, infants may develop warts in the larynx laryngeal papillomas , which is in the throat, from exposure to HPV during birth.
A doctor should evaluate any warts or other symptoms that suggest infection with the human papillomavirus HPV or another sexually transmitted infection STI.
Avoid sexual contact until you have been examined. If you have an STI, avoid sexual contact to prevent spreading the virus. Sometimes, warts may go away on their own. If you have genital warts, your doctor may observe your condition without using medical treatment. This is called watchful waiting. This period may vary from a few days to weeks or possibly months.
In general, your family doctor or any of the following health professionals can determine whether you have genital warts:. A doctor usually can diagnose visible genital warts using your medical history and a physical exam. But not all HPV infections cause visible warts. If you don't have any visible genital warts or other symptoms, it may be hard for your doctor to diagnose HPV infection. Your doctor may ask you the following questions:.
After your doctor takes your medical history, you will have a gynecological exam, which usually includes a Pap test.
A Pap test screens for abnormal cells on the cervix. Results of the Pap test may indicate an HPV infection even though you have no visible warts. Women over age 30 may get a screening test for HPV at the same time as a Pap test. Women under 30 usually get the HPV test only if they have an abnormal Pap test. If your doctor finds areas of abnormal tissue on the cervix which may be related to HPV infection , he or she may recommend treatment.
Some experts believe that people who receive anal sex should have a screening for anal cancer, especially if they also have HIV infection. Ask your doctor whether and how often you should be tested.
When your doctor finds abnormal tissue but cannot make a definite diagnosis, you may have a biopsy for lab tissue studies. Testing for the type of HPV that is causing warts is not useful for diagnosis.
This test is not routinely done for diagnosis or treatment of genital warts. There is no cure for HPV infection, but warts and cell changes can be treated. HPV infection that causes an abnormal Pap test will be treated differently than the HPV types that cause genital warts. Genital warts caused by the most common types of human papillomavirus HPV may go away on their own without treatment. For this and other reasons, experts sometimes have different approaches to treating genital warts.
Doctors often recommend medicine applied to warts topical drug treatment as the first choice of treatment. A doctor will apply the medicines that have a high risk of causing damage to the skin around the warts. You can apply others at home. Caution: Do not use nonprescription wart removal products to treat genital warts. These products are not intended to be used in the genital area and may cause serious burning.
Without treatment, external genital warts may remain unchanged, increase in size or number, or go away. Studies show that no one treatment is completely successful.
All treatments have advantages and disadvantages. The benefits and effectiveness of each treatment need to be compared with the side effects and cost. A biopsy of warts that do not go away on their own or after treatment is often done to rule out precancerous or cancerous conditions.
Several choices of treatment for pregnant women have been found to be effective and safe, including trichloroacetic acid TCA , cryotherapy, and surgery. You can reduce your risk of becoming infected with the human papillomavirus HPV or another sexually transmitted infection STI. You also can reduce the risk of spreading HPV to your sex partner s.
Preventing a sexually transmitted infection STI is easier than treating an infection after it occurs. Latex condom use can reduce the risk of becoming infected with HPV. You can reduce the risk of infection if you use a condom every time you have sex.
Condoms must be put on before beginning any sexual contact. Even if you are using another birth control method, you may wish to use condoms to reduce your risk of getting an STI. Female condoms may lower the risk of HPV infection of the cervix, but they do not cover all of the vulva. These condoms are more effective at lowering the risk for other STIs. It is recommended that girls and boys age 11 or 12 get the HPV vaccine, but the vaccine can be given from age 9 to Children ages 9 to 14 years get the vaccine in a series of two shots over 6 months.
Children age 15 years and older should get the vaccine as a three-dose series. For the vaccine to work best, all shots in the series must be given. Home treatments may not cure HPV infection and genital warts. But a doctor may prescribe medicine that you can use at home, such as podofilox lotion or gel or imiquimod cream. These products are not intended for the genital area and may cause serious burning. It is important to remember that most infections are minor, without serious complications.
Some cases of HPV infection and genital warts disappear without treatment, although human papillomavirus HPV may still be present in your body's cells. Medicine may be used to destroy bothersome genital warts, relieve your symptoms, and reduce the amount of area affected by warts, particularly when the warts are:.
Topical medicine often is the first treatment. For safety, a doctor will apply the topical medicines that could damage the skin around the warts. You can apply other medicines at home. If warts return after one course of treatment with topical medicine, they are treated again only if there are clear reasons for retreatment. Medicines are not used to treat abnormal cell changes found on a Pap test. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Kermott CA, et al. Mayo Clinic Book of Home Remedies.
Rochester, Minn. Bope ET, et al. In: Conn's Current Therapy American Academy of Dermatology. Lunch MD, et al. Management of cutaneous viral warts. Related Common warts. When done properly, home treatment is usually less painful than surgical treatment. If you are uncertain that a skin growth is a wart, or if you have diabetes, peripheral arterial disease, or other major illnesses that may affect your treatment, it is best to see a health professional.
Salicylic acid treatments are often effective. They aren't very painful, aren't very expensive, and usually don't cause scarring. Salicylic acid is a good treatment for children because it isn't very painful. For treatment to be successful, salicylic acid must be applied on a regular basis, usually for a number of months. Folk remedies, such as rubbing a wart with a bean, may have an effect on a wart. But such treatment may simply coincide with the natural disappearance of a wart.
If you decide to treat your warts, both nonprescription and prescription medicines are available. Other medicines used for warts include 5-fluorouracil, which is more often used on genital warts , and cimetidine. Cimetidine can be taken by mouth orally or as an injection. As with any medicine, talk to your doctor before using a wart medicine if you are or may be pregnant.
Some wart medicines may cause birth defects. Surgery is an option if home treatment and treatment at your doctor's office have failed. Surgery for warts is usually quick and effective. No single surgical method is more effective than another in removing warts. Generally, doctors start with the surgical method that is least likely to cause scarring.
A wart may return after surgery, because surgery removes the wart but doesn't destroy the virus that causes the wart. The type of surgery used to remove warts depends on the warts' type, location, and size. Curettage, electrosurgery, and laser surgery are more likely than cryotherapy to leave scars, so they are usually reserved for hard-to-remove or recurring warts.
If you have a large area of warts, curettage may not be an effective treatment. Cryotherapy , which uses a very cold liquid to freeze a wart, is the most commonly used procedure that doesn't involve medicine to treat warts. This procedure poses little risk of scarring but can be painful. Gabica MD - Family Medicine. Author: Healthwise Staff.
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Top of the page. Condition Overview Is this topic for you? What are warts, and what causes them? How are warts spread? What are the symptoms? How are warts diagnosed? How are they treated? But if you have warts that are painful or spreading, or if you are bothered by the way they look, your treatment choices include: Using a home treatment such as salicylic acid or duct tape.
You can get these without a prescription. Putting a stronger medicine on the wart, or getting a shot of medicine in it. Freezing the wart cryotherapy. Removing the wart with surgery electrosurgery, curettage, laser surgery. Health Tools Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health. Decision Points focus on key medical care decisions that are important to many health problems. Warts: Should I Treat Warts? Cause A wart develops when a human papillomavirus HPV infects the outer layer of skin and causes the skin cells to grow rapidly.
Can common warts on hands or fingers be spread to the genitals and cause genital warts? But common warts don't cause the type of genital warts that lead to high-risk cancers. Symptoms Warts occur in a variety of shapes and sizes. Common warts usually appear singly or in groups on the hands, although they may grow on any part of the body. They usually are rough, gray-brown, dome-shaped growths. Plantar warts can develop on any part of the foot.
As the callus and wart get larger, walking can become painful, much like walking with a pebble in your shoe. When pressure from standing or walking pushes a plantar wart beneath the skin's surface, a layer of thick, tough skin similar to a callus develops over it. Sometimes dark specks are visible beneath the surface of the wart.
Flat warts are usually found on the face, arms, or legs. They are small usually smaller than the eraser on the end of a pencil. There are usually several in one area. They have flat tops and can be pink, light brown, or light yellow. Flat warts are often spread by shaving. Filiform warts , a kind of flat wart, can grow around the mouth, nose, and beard area. The surface of this type of wart has many flesh-colored, finger-shaped growths. Periungual warts are found under and around the toenails and fingernails.
They appear as rough, irregular bumps. What Happens Human papillomaviruses can live on healthy skin without causing infection. A wart can take many months to grow before it becomes visible. Warts, particularly newer ones, are easily spread. They can spread to other parts of the body or to other people.
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