A Genital Wart Medicine Primer

A genital wart is a sexually transmitted disease that is the result of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). These warts expose themselves in many different variations, but they are just about always flesh in color, and are usually raised bumps on or around the genital region of the body. Both men and women are prone to get genital warts, but there are some very effective treatments available for this problem. Genital wart medicine can range all the way from topical treatments to injections, and some may require ongoing treatments. Some of these medicines can prevent the warts before they even appear. One type of topical genital wart medicine is one known as keratolytics. Keratolytics are agents that contain acid bases which virtually burn away the genital warts, similar to the way a wart anywhere else on the body is burned off. Some of these keratolytics work for longer periods than others do, so be sure to ask your doctor if a particular medicine is a long term topical treatment or one that will need continued useage. Interferons are another type of medicine that works on the warts in a much different way. Interferons are protein based medicines that have antiviral and anti tumor properties. This medicine can be applied topically or it can be injected directly into the wart itself. The latter is the obviously a quicker, more effective method as it will treat the affected area from the inside out. A word of caution with these is that there tends to be several side effects reported with this type of genital wart medicine. Thus, you will want to check with your doctor for contraindications if you plan on taking any other medications during this type of treatment. Another option of treatment is a new HPV vaccine that has shown some promise in the prevention of genital warts that are caused by the Human Papilloma Virus. However, this genital wart medicine is presently only available for women and girls between the ages of 9 and 26 as a vaccination. This prevention is just that and is not administered as a treatment. Also, this HPV vaccine only treats for four of the more than 75 strains of HPV, so it is not a total prevention. Should you happen to have these warts at the time of your HPV vaccine, you can still transmit them to other people during sexual contact. You should be treated for the warts separately. Also, there are some herbal genital wart medicines that claim to help not only warts in the genital areas but all kinds of warts on other regions of the body. Herbal remedies are often very effective, but some of these medicines go against what doctors will tell you.