Non Medical Management of Genital Warts

The medical treatment of warts is not always successful and many a times, other methods are used. Further many of the drugs have potent side effects and the drugs can not be used in pregnant or breast feeding females.

The most common non medical means of managing warts are:

Cryotherapy: in some cases the warts can be destroyed by the use of liquid nitrogen, the liquid nitrogen is applied to the wart with a Q tip. This may take several sessions and is painless. The wart when destroyed eventually falls off. In the majority of cases, the treatment takes several weeks of daily application of liquid nitrogen. Some individuals fail to respond to Cryotherapy.

Electrocautery. In some cases, an electrical current can be applied which generates heat. This is slightly painful but effective at killing the wart. The area of the skin is frozen with a local anesthetic and then the current is applied for a few seconds. The wart immediately dries up and falls off. This is an effective way to kill warts but the pain is quite moderate in intensity. The genital area is quite sensitive to heat and most individuals shy away from this therapy.



Surgery: when all else fails surgery may be done. This is an office based procedure, the area is numbed and the wart is removed, the genital area is quite sensitive and the procedure is not completely pain free. If there are many genital warts, a large scar can occur. Surgery is generally the last choice for most individuals.

Laser treatments. Today we have lasers with various strengths of penetrability. However, only superficial warts can be treated with laser therapy. Deeper warts are painful and require deep anesthesia which can not be done in a physician's office. Laser is also expensive.