Fredo, I'm new to this message board and greatly appreciate the time you dedicate to helping all of us. Thank you very, very much.

I'm a married male, we both have HPV. I recently had cyro therapy and I am following up with Aldara. During the treatment period I've been advised by my doctor to use condoms (on nights I'm not using Aldara). My question is - can I masturbate after the cyro therapy? Do I risk making the infection worse? What about people with HPV in general? If I had one unnoticed wart, would I risk spreading the infection to other parts of my penis by masturbating?

Has anyone else dealt with this issue?

Thank you.

Hello,

Excellent question you ask about masturbation and genital warts. There is no data on this, so no studies we can point you to that offer insight. Reinfecting or spreading the virus around your genital area probably isn't likely to occur, but one expert with whom I consulted thought it is possible and probably occurs in some cases. There is no way to say exactly "how" likely, though...

So it doesn't seem likely you'll spread the infection through masturbation but it is a good question to raise. It would not be an excessive precaution to avoid directly stimulating the genital skin where the lesions are found.

As for condom use - couples who share HPV would not be prone to reinfect one another or "ping pong" the virus back and forth, and no data really support that this is known to be a problem. The usual "however" exists though in that some studies suggest (without proving) that condom use can help couples who share HPV resolve both the HPV infection and assoicated skin lesions (like warts) a bit more quickly than happens for those who don't use condoms. Just "why" this may be is unknown and an area of debate. Confusing and contradictory, I know...

Hope this helps,
Fredo

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ASHA Moderator

hi i am a 32 year old male with hpv warts. i was searching for this topic and you mention that there is no studies linking infecting your self through masturbation. Well it seems to me like that is what is likely causing my infection to spread . I recently started getting a few warts on my penis and i am freaked out now i dont want to even touch my penis. i started out with one small wart on the head of my penis then a second one but it went away. and recently i have been masturbating more often cause i am out of a relationship . and i now have about four more new ones on my shaft and on the head of my penis. It seems that if i irritate my penis it makes my penis weak therfore the disease spreading to the weak part of my penis. i dont know it is my theory . how ever i need help i want to find a local specialist that can remove my warts. anyone that you can recomend or a website to where i can find specialists DR.'s on HPV. I feel horrible.