Genital Warts Treatment

Imiquimod is a cream that you put on your genital warts. Its brand name is Aldara.

Results have shown that ifmiquimod helps to get rid of warts in about half the people who use it for four months. But one study found it didn’t help people who had HIV.

Imiquimod can also help to reduce the chance of the warts coming back two to four months after you stop using it. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you use imiquimod once, twice or three times a day. It’s just as likely to work however often you use it.

Imiquimod cream can make your skin red, swollen and itchy. Using it twice a day causes more side effects than using it less often.

You shouldn’t use imiquimod if you’re pregnant.

Your doctor can freeze off your warts using liquid nitrogen in a treatment called cryotherapy. You can have this treatment every one to three weeks depending on how quickly the area heals after each treatment and what happens to your warts.

Two RCTs found that cryotherapy worked about as well as treatment with acid. After six weeks of either treatment, about two-thirds of people had gotten rid of their warts.22 Warts came back in about one-third of people two months later, whichever treatment they had.

It isn’t clear whether cryosurgery works better than using an electrical current (electrosurgery) to get rid of the warts.

Cryotherapy can sometimes cause an infection, but this is rare.

It is safe to have cryotherapy if you’re pregnant.

During electrosurgery, doctors use an electrical current to heat up your genital warts to get rid of them. It is also called diathermy or a loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP).

One study found that, after six months, warts had cleared up in 8 in 10 people who had electrosurgery.

It isn’t clear whether electrosurgery works better than freezing the warts off (cryotherapy).

Electrosurgery can cause scarring, swelling, pain generally and pain during sex.

It’s safe to have electrosurgery if you’re pregnant.

Podofilox comes as a gel or solution that you put on your genital warts. It is sometimes called podophyllotoxin and its brand name is Condylox. It is also the most active of the ingredients found in another treatment called podophyllin.

Eight RCTs found that using podofilox for four months helped to get rid of genital warts. But up to a third of people got their warts back.

Continuing to use podofilox after it has gotten rid of your genital warts probably won’t stop them from coming back.

Six studies have also compared podofilox with podophyllin. Most of these studies found that the two treatments worked equally as well for clearing up warts and keeping them from coming back.

Podofilox can irritate and burn your skin, causing pain and itching.6 It can occasionally make the foreskin and head of the penis inflamed in men who aren’t circumcised.

You should not use podofilox if you’re pregnant.

A huge number of people become infected with Genital Warts because they can be spread very easily without even knowing you have them. There are therefore a lot of people suffering from Genital Warts and looking products to help treat them.

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