On saturday, my fiance, who is currently overseas with the military, called me and told me he saw bumps around the base of his penis. We both were tested a couple months ago for numerous STD's and they came back negative.
I had him desribe how they looked to me. He did, and they were characteristic of genital warts. I told him that he needed to go to the doctor ASAP. After much worry and emotions on both our parts, the doctor confirmed what we both believed the "bumps" were. Genital Warts.
The doctor put him on Condylox and he has used it twice already. I am trying to get an appt. today to see my gyno (i was negative in november, but saw my fiance over christmas and had unprotected sex).
I am going to visit him in May. If the GW that are on his penis now are gone then, and if I do have any infection that I treat before then. Can we still be intimate with each other? I'm not sure what to do if I currently test negative for HPV...
I had my first guardasil vaccine in January and my second this past week. Even though I received the first immunization after contact with him, am I protected at all?
Finally, with treatment, I'm aware that there is a chance that the GW may return, however, is this something that we will have to worry about our whole life in our marriage.
I feel so ashamed and scared. I dont want to have to deal with this forever...

Hello lonestargirl,

Welcome to our message boards. For a discussion on HPV in a relationship go to the thread at http://www.ashastd.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=208

Partners are often presumed to share HPV, but this can be very hard to prove. Most cases never result in visible symptoms, for example. Also, HPV tests are not approved for use as a general means of checking your infection status - they are only licensed for use as part of cancer screening with the cervix specifically, and as such aren't looking for HPV of the vagina or vulva. And, genital warts are almost always from "low risk" HPV types, and most clinics only run the "high risk" HPV panel with HPV tests.

Partners who do share HPV are thought to be at low risk of reinfecting one another, but there aren't many studies that look at this so it's something of an unknown. One study suggests that partners who share HPV are more likely to clear the virus more quickly if they use condoms.

Some experts believe that removing genital warts may lower the risk of transmission since it reduces the areas of tissue that contain most of the virus. Removing warts cannot guarantee that the risk of transmission is removed. However, if no symptoms recur in the subsequent months following treatment, the chance of transmission dramatically decreases, and some researchers consider the possibility of being contagious during this time would be minimal to remote.

We don't have any information on the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine after one or two doses (the complete vaccine series requires three doses) but I wouldn't count on much protection being present without all three doses.

Hope this helps.

All the best,
Fredo

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ASHA Moderator