A bothersome aspect of sexual health issues in recent years is genital warts, which can grow in, and around male and female genitals. These can form into ugly groups that can even affect the anal area. They are the result of one of the forms of human papilloma virus or HPV that are transmitted sexually, even orally, and genital warts are a true virus.

Using a condom in this case will not always prevent the genital warts; women can be infected and be unaware of the situation for a long time, making the genital warts easy to transmit to other sexual partners.

To make this problem worse, there is no reason why as soon as a person is infected, they might not show signs at once, and this HPV virus may not activate for a very long time. The person who catches the HPV virus becomes a silent carrier and that is why this terrible disease is spreading rampantly in today's mindset of carefree sexual activity.

Currently, more than 100 human papilloma viruses have been discovered but the one that causes anogenital warts is called human papilloma virus 6 (HPV6). Although outer warts can be easily seen, women who develop HPV6 warts inside their genitalia may not be aware of these warts until a doctor examines the internal area.

Some additional discharge may be seen in women as the genital warts may cause the area around them to be moister than other areas. It is this condition that promotes their growth. To remove these warts the most popular method of wart removal is to apply liquid nitrogen to the infected area; which has very low temperature and will kill the infected skin and tissues. Doctors carry this out because liquid nitrogen is not generally available to the general public. This procedure is not very painful. Liquid nitrogen may be used, depending upon the location.

Sometimes these days lasers are used to remove warts but often a doctor will prefer to use electrocautery although a minor surgical procedure cannot be ruled out. Eradicating them is not completely assured as they can return after treatment and every method available to remove them is still reliant on the area they are located. Imiquimod liquid is used topically to treat genital warts (and anal) as it helps the body's immune system to fight the virus and to get rid of them but it does not kill the virus and new infections can still appear when Imiquimod is being applied.

Unfortunately Imiquimod cannot always be used and in particular it is not to be administered when a woman is pregnant; it also has restrictions on its use inside the vagina and on the genitals or when the skin around the area is inflamed. Like all medications, Imiquimod has side effects and if these are experienced it should be stopped immediately but this is worth discussing with your doctor prior to using it. With such a serious subject, the information on genital warts provided here should not be viewed as complete or in-depth.