Do anal warts mean I can never have anal sex again?
January 20, 2008
I had unprotected sex. Three weeks later I developed anal wart. Since it is caused by HPV, does this mean that I can no longer have anal sex in order to protect my partner? Does it spread through cum, too?
If you have genital or anal warts then you have HPV. That's not a biggie in itself though. An estimated 90% of gay men have HPV, so you're hardly alone. An estimated half or more of the general population have it as well. Only about 5-10% of infected people will develop any sort of warts, and many of them may never realize they have them.
If you have warts, and you said you do, your first order of business is to set up an appointment with your doctor to have yourself formally diagnosed. It may not be a wart at all, but may be something completely unrelated to sex. Assuming that the doctor says you have anal warts, your next step is to have the doctor check for warts inside your anal canal. It's important this be done, otherwise untreated anal warts inside your body can spread outside of your anus and onto your genitals as well.
If you have anal warts inside your body, your doctor should do a Pap smear to check for possible precancerous cells. HPV and anal warts are linked to that. This may be the part he doesn't know about, so if he does not do this, you should request he have it done. A Pap smear on men is done almost the same was as for women. Your doctor should have an idea how to do that. If he doesn't, tell him to go look at the physician's area in gayhealth.com to learn how. Whether you have the precancerous cells or not, your doc should be able to guide you through what to do next.
Now for your specific questions. Do you have to give up anal sex? No. As long as you get a clean bill of health from your doctor that the anal warts are gone, you don't have to give it up. Until that point though, any partner who touches your anal warts risks contracting them himself. That includes secondary forms of touching. For example, if he puts on a condom, fucks you, then pulls off the condom with his fingers, and then touches his dick to jack off. It's easy to pass them along, unfortunately. As a matter of fact, he doesn't even have to fuck you. Just rubbing his dick next to the anal warts that you now have may be enough. So go see your doc.
As for whether cum spreads warts, the answer is yes, sort-of. Cum won't pass on anal warts if you have them there, but they will pass along genital warts if you have them inside your urethra. HPV is traditionally passed along by skin-to-skin contact with someone who has genital or anal warts. It may be passed along other ways too, but those have not been as clinically established. So can you safely jack off on your partners? I'd say yes. But you really should see your doc before having any more sex. He'll check your dick for genital warts on the same visit. You may have one or more there and not have realized it yet.
If you have warts, and you said you do, your first order of business is to set up an appointment with your doctor to have yourself formally diagnosed. It may not be a wart at all, but may be something completely unrelated to sex. Assuming that the doctor says you have anal warts, your next step is to have the doctor check for warts inside your anal canal. It's important this be done, otherwise untreated anal warts inside your body can spread outside of your anus and onto your genitals as well.
If you have anal warts inside your body, your doctor should do a Pap smear to check for possible precancerous cells. HPV and anal warts are linked to that. This may be the part he doesn't know about, so if he does not do this, you should request he have it done. A Pap smear on men is done almost the same was as for women. Your doctor should have an idea how to do that. If he doesn't, tell him to go look at the physician's area in gayhealth.com to learn how. Whether you have the precancerous cells or not, your doc should be able to guide you through what to do next.
Now for your specific questions. Do you have to give up anal sex? No. As long as you get a clean bill of health from your doctor that the anal warts are gone, you don't have to give it up. Until that point though, any partner who touches your anal warts risks contracting them himself. That includes secondary forms of touching. For example, if he puts on a condom, fucks you, then pulls off the condom with his fingers, and then touches his dick to jack off. It's easy to pass them along, unfortunately. As a matter of fact, he doesn't even have to fuck you. Just rubbing his dick next to the anal warts that you now have may be enough. So go see your doc.
As for whether cum spreads warts, the answer is yes, sort-of. Cum won't pass on anal warts if you have them there, but they will pass along genital warts if you have them inside your urethra. HPV is traditionally passed along by skin-to-skin contact with someone who has genital or anal warts. It may be passed along other ways too, but those have not been as clinically established. So can you safely jack off on your partners? I'd say yes. But you really should see your doc before having any more sex. He'll check your dick for genital warts on the same visit. You may have one or more there and not have realized it yet.
