All About Warts

The commonest places to have warts are on your fingers and on the bottom of your feet but you can also get them around the end of your penis or on your vaginal lips and these are called ‘genital’ warts. They are caused by ‘Human Papilloma Virus’. There are over 40 different types of virus – some of which cause warts on your fingers and verrucas on your feet. The viruses that cause you to have ‘genital’ warts are different ones than those which cause warts on your hands and feet.

Warts on your hands are caused by one of the many different wart viruses. They start by being little fleshy lumps anywhere on your hands, which gradually grow larger. If you bite your nails they particularly occur around the bottom of your nails. Most them will go away if you do nothing – in about three months – or you can ‘paint’ them with special wart paint that you can get over the counter at the chemists. If they still don’t go away – getting them frozen with liquid nitrogen at the doctor’s surgery can help get rid of them.

Warts on your feet are caused by the same little viruses as those that cause the warts on your hands. But because they are on the bottom of your feet and you walk on the all the time they are pressed inwards and so grow inwards instead of outwards, and this is what makes them hurt so much. Like warts on your hand – around 80% of them will disappear by themselves with time, but because the tend to be painful you can get rid of the them quicker by treating them. To do this you need to go to your local chemist and get ‘verruca’ plasters which are like little doughnuts of sticky plaster with a hole in the middle into which you put salicylic acid paste (which comes with them when you buy them) and this kills off the virus. Normally you may need to scrape away the dead skin of the verruca as well.

Warts on your willie and around the vaginal opening are called ‘genital’ warts for obvious reasons. They are caught by having sex with someone who has genital warts themselves. Unfortunately you may not always know that the other person has genital warts as they are not always all that obvious that you can see them at ‘first’ glance, which is why you should use condom – which does stop you getting them – either a girl getting them from a boy, or boy getting them from a girl – as long as the condom is put on right from the start and correctly. If you think that you have genital warts then go and see your doctor, or go to a Genito – Urinary clinic at your local hospital as you will also need to be checked out for other sexually transmitted infections.