Cryotherapy (also known as cryosurgery) can be described as the application of extreme cold to destroy abnormal or diseased tissue. For our articles purposes, cryotherapy is a process in which a chemical, usually nitrous oxide or liquid nitrogen is used to freeze off genital warts (or warts generally). It is most often recommended because it is a relatively inexpensive and effective treatment which is fast, normally quite painless and in many cases, very effective if there are only a few warts present.

Cryotherapy is normally recommended by doctors to treat stubborn warts in adults and older children, being effectual for both dry and moist warts, externally and internally. Treatment can be done in the doctor's office or a local clinic making it an extremely accessible method of treatment for patients.

Although it can at times be uncomfortable, cryotherapy does not usually result in scarring but it can occasionally cause pain during the procedure. There have been known to be a few other side effects during the process including skin irritation, swelling, blistering and ulceration. Cryotherapy of the rectum and surrounding area is painful and less successful than cryotherapy elsewhere on the body but warts on the shaft of the penis and vulva generally respond very well to the treatment.

Cryotherapy during pregnancy is subject to conflicting reports, with different studies and research inconsistent in their prognosis. Whereas it is commonly considered safe for use during pregnancy, it is generally accepted that cryotherapy is most effective and safe for the mother and foetus when used during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Furthermore, some guidelines seem to indicate that cryotherapy is safe if only three to four treatments are given and this is based on a past case study on pregnant women demonstrating the safety of some cryotherapy treatments.

For the main part though, cryotherapy has been proven to be 50 to 80 percent effective in the treatment and clearance of warts.

Cryotherapy in general, can be employed to destroy a variety of benign skin growths as well as warts, such as pre-cancerous lesions (actinic keratoses, for example), malignant lesions (basal cell and squamous cell cancers, for instance) moles, skin tags and solar keratoses. It can also be used as a method of treating localized areas of some cancers (called cryosurgery), like prostate cancer, for example and to treat abnormal skin cells by dermatologists.

Cryotherapy is not recommended for certain areas of the body though because of the danger of destruction of tissue or unacceptable scarring but under normal circumstances, cryotherapy poses little risk and can be well-tolerated by the elderly and other patients who are not good candidates for other surgical procedures.