Genital Warts — How to Cope With Psychological and Emotional Pain?
Aside from being physically disruptive, genital warts may cause the sufferer psychological and emotional pain. It is common for an individual with genital warts or HPV infection to be frustrated, embarrassed, and anxious about having genital warts and the risks associated with it. This is normal, but it would help if you take into the account the fact that genital warts can be controlled and managed. There may not be a cure for the virus itself, but with perseverance and patience, the symptoms will go away. It would also help if you try to overcome your emotions first and concentrate on gathering information about the said disease in order to know how to deal with it. Doing so will definitely help you come to terms with the situation, do something about it, and move on to have a happier and healthier life.
Again, it is normal to feel upset and anxious once you find out you have genital warts. You may even think that you are less attractive, experience a decrease in sex drive, and feel a certain amount of isolation from everyone else. You may even feel angry at your partner, thinking that he/she must have been the one whom you got the infection from even though in reality it is hard to pinpoint who passed on the virus to you. It may take some time to get over these negative emotions, but you should understand that it is still possible to have a normal life even if you have or have had genital warts.
There are many ways to cope emotionally with genital warts. You may talk to someone whom you know you can fully trust. Do not be ashamed to confide in someone about your situation. You are not alone. There are a lot of people out there who are going through the same ordeal. Moreover, as mentioned above, you may join a genital warts support group. You may find such support groups offline or online. With the former, there is a certain amount of human interaction. You will meet with actual people and have in-person conversations. With online support groups, you can voice out your concerns anonymously. Support groups can offer you a lot of useful information, such as resources regarding treatments.
You should also talk to your partner about your situation. But before this, you should do a lot of research about genital warts so that you would be prepared to answer all of his/her questions. Brace yourself for the possibility of rejection. Understand that your partner will feel hurt and confused, just like how you felt at first. Explain that even though there is no cure for the virus, there are a lot of treatment options available that would get rid of the warts. Also mention that in most cases, the virus goes away within two years. Also, tell your partner that not everyone who gets exposed to the virus will get genital warts; a strong immune system is responsible for protecting you. Finally, instead moping about the situation, identify ways on how you can deal with it together.
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Genital Rash Can Transmit HIV
IT HAS been observed that people who have rashes around their genital organs have the potential of contracting the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) during intimate affairs with HIV-infected partners.
Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor, Medical Director in-charge of the New Crystal Clinic made the observation during an interview with HEALTH MATTERS last Friday.
Genital rash, he explained, almost always resulted in discharges especially when constantly scratched by the sufferer.
When this happens, fluids that spring from the affected parts are transmitted to the other partner during sexual intercourse despite the use of a condom.
“I’ve had rather unfortunate cases in my Consulting Room where people who claimed to have used contraceptives during sexual contacts were diagnosed with HIV.
“Such people had expressed surprise at the turn of events but further checks on them revealed that they had had genital rashes during those moments of the sexual acts,” he pointed out.
According to him, any fluid discharged from any part of the body of an HIV-infected person contains the virus, hence the need for people to be extra careful during contacts with any form of fluids.
The Medical Director advised people who have rashes around their genital organs to seek immediate medical attention.
When contacted, Mr. Abraham Nana Pampam, a Tema-based traditional healer, also held similar views, saying rashes around the genital area should be gotten rid of as soon as sufferers realise such occurrence.
Common herbal medications and ointments, he indicated, could be used in the effective treatment of Genital Rash.
Studies have shown that Genital Warts are caused by a virus called the Human Papilloma Virus.
The warts can be removed but the sufferer would have the virus for the rest of his life; It is very common for the warts to reappear after they have been removed.
The disease is spread by coming into contact with the warts, but often it cannot be seen.
Genital warts can have varying appearances.
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Teen Sexual Behavior Does Not Predict HPV Risk
A teen’s sexual activity doesn’t predict her future risk for HPV, and shouldn’t determine whether she receives the HPV vaccine, according to University of Michigan researchers.
The U of M study conducted by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital’s Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit found that the sexual activity of adolescents did not predict future contraction of HPV as adults. HPV, genital human papillomavirus, is the most common sexually transmitted infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The findings support the CDC’s recommendation for universal vaccination for all women ages 11 to 26, regardless of sexual experience, said Dr. Amanda Dempsey, the study’s lead researcher.
“We couldn’t find any discernible adolescent behavior, including sexual activity, that was associated with an increased risk of HPV infection as a sexually active young adult,” Dempsey said. “HPV is so prevalent that everyone who becomes sexually active is at risk.”
Dempsey says she and her colleagues undertook the study because of a continued “reluctance among parents to be okay with vaccinating their younger female adolescent children. In clinic, I hear some parents expressing that their adolescent child wouldn’t need the vaccine because she’s not at risk. We wanted to examine more closely a girl’s risk for HPV during adolescence based on her behaviors.”
They also wanted to address conflicting recommendations about who should get the vaccine, Dempsey said. While the CDC recommends it for all women age 11 to 26, the American Cancer Society recommends that women 18 and older talk with their doctors about whether they’re at risk for the virus based on their sexual history.
The problem with that approach, the study results indicate, is that “you really can’t pick out one or two behaviors that predict if you’ve been exposed to HPV,” Dempsey said. “HPV is just so common and so easily transmitted from person to person that it doesn’t take more than one partner to get exposed. It doesn’t matter what you did as an adolescent. Most people are going to become sexually active and at that point are going to be at risk.”
The prospective study — one that relies on information gathered at the time of a person’s life being studied rather than asking participants to remember information retrospectively — examined data on 3,181 adolescents who participated in a long-term study. Researchers were able to use data collected on participants from early adolescence on to link their HPV status with the behaviors the girls reported several years earlier.
The U of M researchers found no correlation between an adult woman’s HPV infection and her number of sexual partners, her history of having an older male sexual partners and/or a new sex partner with the past year, her illegal drug use, her history of sex while alcohol-impaired or her regular use of cigarettes or alcohol.
HPV infection generally occurs shortly after a woman becomes sexually active. Most women never know they have the virus because it usually goes away on its own and may not cause any symptoms.
The HPV vaccine guards against four types of HPV: two that cause 70 out of 100 cases of cervical cancer and two that cause 90 out of 100 cases of genital warts. There are more than 100 types of HPV, but only some types lead to cervical cancer or genital warts.
Because the vaccine protects against only four strains, even women who have tested positive for HPV should still get vaccinated, Dempsey said.
The study appears in the July issue of Pediatrics.