<![CDATA[Sexual Health]]> en daily 1 <![CDATA[How Do I Know if I Have Genital Warts?]]>

Genital warts are spread by skin-to-skin contact. The virus is usually spread through sexual activity. Genital warts are a common sexually transmitted disease (STD).

What causes HPV and genital warts?
HPV is a virus. Certain types of the virus cause genital warts and some types cause abnormal cervical cell changes and cervical cancer.

HPV and genital warts can be spread through sexual contact with someone who has the virus.

What are the symptoms?
Most people infected with HPV don't have symptoms. But if they do, the symptoms may be so mild that they may not know they are infected. The symptoms may include pain, itching, and bleeding, or you may develop visible genital warts.

If you have symptoms, they will probably occur 2 to 3 months after infection. But you can have symptoms from 3 weeks to many years after infection.

Visible genital warts appear only during active infection. But it is possible to spread the virus even if you can't see the warts.


Next Page: How are HPV and genital warts diagnosed?
How are HPV and genital warts diagnosed?
A doctor can often tell if you have genital warts by looking closely at your genital and anal areas. He or she may ask you questions about your symptoms and your risk factors. Risk factors are things that make you more likely to get a disease.

Sometimes the doctor takes a sample of tissue from the wart for testing.

For women, if you have an abnormal Pap test, your doctor can do an HPV test that looks for high-risk types of the virus.

How are they treated?
There is no cure for HPV, but the symptoms can be treated.

Talk to your doctor about whether you should treat visible genital warts. They usually go away with no treatment, but they may also spread. Most people decide to treat them because of the symptoms or because of how the warts look. But if you don't have symptoms and are not worried about how the warts look, you can wait and see if the warts go away.

If you do decide to treat genital warts, talk to your doctor about the best treatment for you. There are prescription medicines you or your doctor can put on the warts. Or your doctor can remove them with lasers, surgery, or by freezing them off.

Even if you treat visible warts or your warts go away without treatment, the HPV infection can stay in your body's cells. It is possible to spread genital warts to your partner even if you have no signs of them.

Can HPV and genital warts be prevented?
The best way to keep from getting genital warts—or any other STD—is to not have sex. If you do have sex, practice safe sex.

  • Use condoms. Condoms may help reduce the risk of spreading genital warts, but they do not protect the entire genital area against skin-to-skin contact.
  • Before you have sex with someone, talk to them about STDs. Find out whether he or she is at risk for them. Remember that a person can be infected without knowing it.
  • If you have symptoms of an STD, don't have sex.
  • Do not have sex with anyone who has symptoms or who may have been exposed to an STD.
  • Do not have more than one sex partner at a time. Having several sex partners increases your risk for disease.
  • Use condoms. Condoms may help reduce the risk of spreading genital warts, but they do not protect the entire genital area against skin-to-skin contact.
A new vaccine called Gardasil protects against four types of HPV, which together cause most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts. You get three shots over 6 months. The vaccine is recommended for girls 11 to 12 years old. It is also recommended for females 13 to 26 years old who did not get it when they were younger.

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]]> (123RF) <![CDATA[A Longtime Vulvodynia Patient Finally Gets Help From a Pain Specialist]]>
National Vulvodynia Association, has generalized vulvodynia—the kind where the vulva hurts all the time. It started in her 20s with a very mild burning, she says. Doctors prescribed topical cortisone, which didn’t help. Then at 41, her condition "exploded," she says. "It was excruciating, knife-like pain all the time, day and night."

Mate was lucky enough to end up in the office of a neurologist who was familiar with vulvodynia and had several other patients with the condition. Simply having a diagnosis was a huge relief for her. "For the first time since my 20s, I wasn’t this weird person who had something that no one else had," Mate says.

Mate was bedridden for six months and used Percocet to treat the pain, but it became less effective as her body adjusted to the medication. "It was the worst thing that I can ever imagine having, in terms of the pain," she says. The only plus? "Very few of my doctors ever suggested that it was in my mind."

Finally, she tried two pudendal nerve blocks—anesthetic injections—administered five days apart by a pain specialist. "My pain went from a 10 out of 10 to a 6 or a 5," Mate says, "which, for me, was heaven." Since then she has used the anticonvulsants Tegretol and Trileptal to manage the pain, and she also avoids sitting for more than an hour at a time.

Mate’s condition has not been cured, but it has become manageable. "Most days, it’s at a 3," she says. "There are actually days when I don’t realize I have it."

Phyllis’s advice for women with her subtype of vulvodynia? "Get to a pain specialist," she says. "Pain specialists will treat pain much more aggressively than other types of doctors."
]]> Anticonvulsants helped Phyllis Mate control her vulvodynia. (PHYLLIS MATE) <![CDATA[How to Reduce the STD Risks of Sharing Sex Toys]]>

How to reduce risk
Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Washington in Seattle, says the best way to be safe with sex toys is to use condoms and change the condom each time the toy changes partners or moves from one area of the body to another (especially after being used on the anus). "And make sure you clean it very well," she says.

Salespeople at sex-toy shops can help you figure out proper cleaning methods. Cleaning often involves soap and water, or even a run through the dishwasher. Submersion in boiling water might also be a good idea, depending on the material the toy is made of and the type of toy it is (such as whether it has moving or electric parts). Sex-toy emporium Babeland offers a comprehensive guide to toy cleaning and care.

STDs are not the only safety issue surrounding sex toys; some users make a point of avoiding products made with compounds called phthalates for fear they may be toxic. The science is not conclusive, but shoppers may want to look for toys made with other materials instead, such as silicone.
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