Dear Fredo,

I've been having a persistent fear that I feel I can overcome, but I need a boost. I was diagnosed with warts about a year ago, but had my first outbreak about 2 years ago. They have not come back for awhile and I don't really find them to be much more than a inconvenience in general.

My girlfriend gave me oral sex a little over a year ago when I had what was soon to be diagnosed as a wart. She has had no problems with it and a few months later she started and has since completed the HPV vaccine, so I'm not so concerned about the future.

I've been worried that she will develop warts in her throat, RRP, from this exposure a year ago. I have done some research on this as well as contacted other doctors and everything indicates that warts in the throat from oral sex are extremely rare and possibly not even something that ever occurs. Still, I worry.

I worry that she should be monitored, but one STD expert told me this was unnecessary. Still, I told her that she should have the dentist look at her throat. She doesn't want to do this. She says she has no discomfort in her throat and if she does, then she'll have things looked at. I can't force her to do anything that she doesn't want to do. She doesn't want to do that.

I start fearing that there may be tiny warts she couldn't feel and they will cause cancer! I start worrying and worrying and yet I can't control her. I know it's unreasonable to be worried about something that if anything is an extremely rare disease, but I still fear it and I don't want anything to happen to her.

How can I just relax and let things be? I can't force her to be actively monitored because she won't do that. I know that it's a very overblown fear and several experts have indicated that I should just forget about it. But I have OCD tendencies and before this worry I was worrying about other STDS (I got tested for them all and so my worrying mind moved onto this).

How can I just rest assured that everything will be OK and if in the very unlikely event there's ever a problem from it she'll feel it and seek treatment.

Help!

Thanks.

Hi WP,

Thanks for your post. First things first: the types of HPV that cause warts aren't the same that are associated with some of the oral cancers, so no worries there.

RRP is indeed an incredibly rare disease, and there's no routine screening that's indicated. Maybe it would help to focus on that, rather than the endless "what if?" scenarios. Look at it this way: HPV is common, and so is oral sex. In spite of that, how many cases of RRP have you ever come across? Exactly...none!

Hope this helps.

Best,
Fredo

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