I found out I had hpv a couple weeks ago and told my boyfriend and he was awesome about it. Very understanding and had lots of questions, like I expected. I told him that it's probably 100% likely that he had it by now, too, just wouldn't show any effects of it. He'd be fine. BUT, today I went back to my doctor cause of some bumps I had when I had my physical, and she said that they were just skin tags. So, the bumps have grown significantly and apparently I have at least two strains of HPV. I have dysplasia, which I am having a colposcopy for next month, and I have genital warts. And they are irritating as Hell. I get the heebeegeebees just thinking about them.Yuck.

I have been such a good girl and feel like I'm being punished! I feel so dirty. Doesn't this just sound like a dirty thing to have? Did anyone else feel this way? Yeah, yeah. I know what you're going to say, it's so common. But when the warts come, it doesn't feel like I'm one of the 80% anymore.

Anyway. My doc prescribed me to Aldara and I'm wondering what kind of experiences others have with this. Apparently it costs half an arm and isn't necessarily effective. Plus, sex with my guy is out the door for 4 - 16 weeks as long as he doesn't show signs. Does anyone have experience with continuing sex with warts? How about recurrences with warts, esp. while treating the initial ones? What exactly is the cost of Aldara?

You can read more about aldara, including indications, by clicking http://www.3m.com/us/healthcare/pharma/ ... view.jhtml

One thing that's mentioned there is to make sure all the cream has been removed prior to having sex. Note that Aldara may weaken condoms.

Transmission studies among couples who share HPV are lacking, so there's no hard data we're aware of to give, but most experts we're familiar with think it's unlikely couples that share HPV will "ping pong" it back and forth in a cycle of reinfection. Some studies suggest (hard to say "prove" at this point) that when such couples use condoms, they might have both warts and the underlying virus clear a bit more quickly - just why this happens isn't clear.

Fredo

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