Ask An Expert: Genital Warts and Female Condoms

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Ask An Expert: Genital Warts and Female Condoms

Question:

After undergoing treatment for genital warts, what are the best condoms for a woman to use if she had genital warts around her cervix — the female condom or the regular condom?

Answer:

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, infecting about 75 percent of sexually active Americans at some point in their lives. About 30 subtypes of the virus can be spread through sexual contact. Some types cause genital warts, and other types cause cervical cancer. However, most people who are infected with HPV never develop symptoms at all.

Genital warts are very contagious. They are spread through skin-to-skin contact during vaginal or anal sex with an infected partner. The risk of developing genital warts is highest if you have sexual contact with someone who currently has genital warts, but as there is no cure for the virus, the disease can still be spread even after the warts are removed.

You can decrease your risk of transmitting HPV infection to your sexual partners by using condoms, but condoms do not entirely eliminate the risk of passing on the infection. Since female condoms cover more area, it is possible that they will be more effective than male condoms, but this is not known. You should use whichever type of condom is most comfortable for you. In addition to using condoms, it is also important to undergo regular Pap smears to screen for cervical cancer.

Serena Koenig, M.D., M.P.H, is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. She serves on the faculties of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities and Infectious Disease in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She divides her clinical time between a clinic in Haiti and the infectious disease and internal medicine services at Brigham and Women's Hospital. With grants from the NIH, she also conducts operational research on the most effective strategies to treat HIV and tuberculosis in Haiti using decision modeling techniques.

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Last updated:	January 24, 2007

Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.

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