Tag Archives: warts

STD Awareness: Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Pregnancy

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Every month since January 2011, we’ve been sharing installments of our STD Awareness series, and each month, we’ve encouraged you to protect yourself from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) by using dental dams and condoms. But what if you’re trying to get pregnant? In that case, you’re probably not using condoms! However, it is very important that partners know their STD status — being screened and treated for STDs prior to pregnancy is a good idea for your health, and can protect your future baby.

If you and a partner are trying to get pregnant, you might consider being screened for STDs together.

When present during pregnancy, certain STDs can have negative health effects for you or your future baby (including preterm labor, stillbirth, low birth weight, pneumonia, certain infections, blindness, and liver disease), especially if they are not cured or treated in time. Receiving prenatal care can help prevent these problems, so it is important to be screened and treated for STDs prior to or early in your pregnancy.

During pregnancy, the immune system undergoes changes, which are probably necessary to ensure that the body doesn’t reject the fetus — normally, the immune system recognizes non-self cells as potential pathogens and attacks. These immune system changes might make a pregnant person more susceptible to disease. Latent viral infections, like genital warts or herpes, might come out of dormancy. Additionally, anatomical changes lead to a larger exposed area of the cervix, which is potentially more vulnerable to initial infections. Continue reading →

Over 90 Percent of What Planned Parenthood Does, Part 6: Vaccinations

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Welcome to the latest installment of “Over 90 Percent of What Planned Parenthood Does,” a series on Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona’s blog that highlights Planned Parenthood’s diverse array of services — the ones Jon Kyl doesn’t know about.

You know what they say: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Public health experts agree that vaccines are one of the most important advancements in medicine, and are incredibly safe and effective in preventing infectious disease. Many infectious diseases that used to lay waste to their victims are now unknown to many of us in the developed world — polio, whooping cough, measles, and rabies struck fear in the hearts of our forebears, but most young people today barely know what they are (although low rates of vaccination can still lead to outbreaks, such as 2008’s measles outbreak in Tucson). Smallpox, once a terrifying scourge, has been wiped off the planet thanks to vaccination campaigns.

We offer vaccinations against hepatitis A and B, as well as HPV.

Vaccines work by introducing antigens to your immune system. An antigen is a substance, such as a protein on the surface of a virus, that the immune system can recognize as dangerous. It is then able to attack the pathogen and, often, create a “memory” of that pathogen so it can attack it in the event of reinfection. The antigens in vaccines are very safe, and can be derived from many sources, such as inactivated (dead) or attenuated (weakened) pathogens, or fragments of pathogens. Some vaccines, such as those protecting against human papillomavirus and hepatitis B, are made with laboratory-synthesized fragments of the surface proteins of viruses, which are sufficient to produce immune response despite being completely noninfectious.

Planned Parenthood Arizona offers vaccinations against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and human papillomavirus (HPV). All three of these viruses can be transmitted sexually, and hepatitis B and HPV can cause cancer if the infections become chronic. The hepatitis vaccines have led to all-time lows in rates of hepatitis A and hepatitis B; the HPV vaccine is still new, but emerging evidence suggests a possible decrease in HPV rates as herd immunity grows. Vaccination doesn’t just benefit you and your partner(s) — it benefits society as a whole. Continue reading →

STD Awareness: HPV in Males

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Human papillomavirus, or HPV, can affect both males and females.

Human papillomavirus, or HPV, affects people of all genders.

Whether it’s worries over Gardasil making girls go wild, or it’s somber discussion about cervical cancer, discourse about human papillomavirus (HPV) centers around its impact on females. But who are most of these females getting HPV from? For the most part, they’re getting it from male partners. And despite the fact that cervical cancer is the most common cancer associated with HPV, it is not the only one. A high-risk strain of HPV can lead to cancers of the penis, anus, mouth, and throat; additionally, there are strains of HPV that cause genital warts, which affect males and females equally. So why don’t males figure very prominently in discussions of HPV and the preventive vaccine, Gardasil?

Mouth, throat, penile, and anal cancers can all be caused by HPV.

Some people think that if they remain abstinent until marriage, they will be able to avoid sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) – but not very many people can say with certainty that their spouses have never had any other sexual partners. Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón and a leader in her own right, was made famous here by the musical Evita. According to physician and writer Shobha S. Krishnan, she died in 1952 of cervical cancer – the same fate that befell her husband’s first wife. Many believe that Juan Perón was the source of both women’s ultimately fatal HPV infections.

While one’s own sexual behavior can increase risk for acquiring an STD, it is not the only factor – the sexual history of one’s partner also plays an important role. HPV is especially tricky because there is currently no FDA-approved test for HPV in males – despite the fact that more than half of sexually active males are estimated to have been infected with HPV at some point in their lives. And, because it is so often asymptomatic, a male can carry this virus without knowing it, unwittingly infecting his partners. Continue reading →

STD Awareness: Genital Warts

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A computer model of the surface of HPV-11, a leading cause of genital warts. Image: Scripps Research Institute

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a hot topic these days thanks to the advent — and attendant controversy — of Gardasil, the vaccine that protects against four strains of this sexually transmitted virus. Discourse centers around HPV-16 and HPV-18, the two HPV strains that together are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of anal cancers. However, Gardasil also protects against HPV-6 and HPV-11, two HPV strains that aren’t associated with cancer but rather with 90 percent of genital warts. While genital warts don’t have the potential to cause cancer and death, they can be very upsetting to the people who develop them.

Every year in the United States, about $200 million is spent to treat genital warts.

Many strains of human papillomavirus can cause warts, and not all of them are sexually transmitted. For instance, HPV-1, HPV-2, and HPV-4 cause warts on the hands and feet and are spread by skin-to-skin contact. About 40 strains of HPV can be transmitted sexually – they are called “mucosal” strains because of their affinity for mucous membranes such as the skin found in the genital, anal, and oral regions. Ninety percent of cases of genital warts are caused by two strains of HPV: HPV-6 and HPV-11. Genital warts are highly contagious and can be transmitted by any type of sexual activity.

Let’s start with a quick overview of genital warts. While it’s quite possible for someone infected with a wart-causing strain of HPV to be completely asymptomatic, the physical appearance of warts can take several forms. They can appear in the genital area, in or around the anus, and (very rarely) in the mouth, lips, palate, or throat. They can also rarely be found on the cervix and vaginal walls. They are soft to the touch and can be raised, flat, or bumpy. They may or may not be itchy or painful. Genital warts can be small or quite large. As you can see, there are a wide variety of ways they can manifest themselves, despite being caused by one type of virus. There are four types:

  • condylomata acuminata, which have a “cauliflower-like” appearance
  • papular warts, which are dome-shaped papules 1-4 millimeters in diameter
  • keratotic warts, which have a thick, “crust-like” layer
  • flat-topped papules, which can look like a freckle or might be slightly raised from the surface of the skin

Genital warts usually develop within six weeks to six months after exposure, but could take longer to appear. If our immune systems are healthy, our bodies may be able to fight off the virus — our immune systems are normally able to clear 90 percent of genital-wart infections within two years of exposure. Unfortunately, if the immune system can’t fight off the virus, the infection will become chronic, in which case warts can resurface throughout one’s lifetime. The warts can be removed by a doctor, but you could still transmit the virus to others and you might experience a recurrence of the warts. Smokers’ immune systems are less likely to be able to fight off the infection, and in the case of a chronic infection, smokers’ warts are more likely to return even after being removed by a health care provider. Continue reading →

STD Awareness: Cytomegalovirus and Molluscum Contagiosum

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Most sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are caused by microorganisms – lifeforms that are too small to be seen without a microscope. Many STDs, however, are caused by viruses, which technically aren’t even alive. Rather, viruses are pieces of genetic information that are stored in protein capsules. When these capsules come into contact with a host cell, the genetic information is able to enter the cell and hijack its machinery so that the host cell manufactures copies of the virus, as well as potentially harmful viral proteins. Many well-known STDs, such as herpes and HIV/AIDS, are caused by viruses, but this month we will focus on two lesser-known viral STDs, cytomegalovirus and molluscum contagiosum. Your local Planned Parenthood health center, as well as other clinics, health departments, and private health-care providers, can help you get a diagnosis and treatment for these STDs.

Cytomegalovirus leaves granules inside its host cells called inclusion bodies, pictured here. Photograph from the CDC’s Public Health Image Library.

Cytomegalovirus leaves granules inside its host cells called inclusion bodies, pictured here. Image: Public Health Image Library, CDC

Cytomegalovirus

The bad news is that most people are infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) at some point in their lives. About 80 percent of the U.S. population is estimated to be carriers, about 4 in 10 Americans are infected with CMV before puberty (usually through contact with saliva), and adults can be reinfected through sexual activity. The good news is that among healthy adults, a CMV infection usually does not have any symptoms, though if they do they could seem like a mild case of mono. Being reinfected with the virus later in life also carries with it only a small risk for symptoms in healthy adults.

And back to the bad news: While an infection with cytomegalovirus usually does not have symptoms, if someone is infected while pregnant it can harm the fetus. About 1 in 100 U.S. babies is infected with CMV, but usually doesn’t show symptoms. Every year in the United States, around 5,500 babies are born with symptomatic cytomegalic inclusion disease (CID). Symptoms of CID vary, but the most severe include mental retardation and hearing loss. If the mother was already infected before conception, there is a 2 percent chance the virus will be transmitted to the fetus; however, if the infection occurs during pregnancy, this risk jumps into the 40 to 50 percent range. Continue reading →