[Anonymous Post]: Genital Warts Questions

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

Hey, all. Another one of those times when the VP Team is posting anonymously on someone else's behalf. For more info on that sort of thing, check here. Otherwise, we appreciate you being your usual fantastic selves with respect to this post. :)

Thanks,
Tori
For the VP Team
contact_vp
_________________________

I was diagnosed with having genital warts last June, and when my boyfriend went in for an exam it was confirmed that he also had genital warts. We had been together for almost a year exclusively at that point, and I did/do not question his fidelity, so one of us brought it into the relationship while it was in the dormant stage. We had been having unprotected sex prior to all of this because none of us had shown any signs of having any STI's & I was on birth control (I know, not the best idea, but what's in the past is in the past). Anyway, I went through all the stages of grieving - which involved little to no sexual action on, & we always used condoms from that point on when we did have sex. There has also been absolutely no oral sex since the diagnosis.

Finally, 8 months later, I feel like I can begin to reconquer my sex life. My boyfriend & I are still together (two years this August!) & while it was & is really rough, I still have so many unanswered questions.
1) If both of us have genital warts, & currently do not have any visible ones, are we able to go back to having unprotected sex? I'm still on birth control, & I have been on the same birth control for four years, which I take exactly as directed, so that would be for pregnancy protection.
2) What is there to do when it comes to oral sex? I really don't miss having my boyfriend go down on me because I haven't yet overcome that aspect of having an STI, but I really miss performing oral sex on him. Are we limited to using condoms for oral sex? I know that this is an option, but I really feel like it... ruins the mood.

Thanks for all your help!

Comments

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

This page (http://www.ashastd.org/hpv/hpv_learn_warts.cfm) from the American Social Health Association may be a good place to start for answers. As far as I know (disclaimer: I am by no means an expert), HPV isn't like passing a bacterial or yeast infection back and forth. If you both have it, even subclinically, then you both have it. But I'm absolutely going to defer to anyone who can find an authoritative source on this.

As for your second question, the ASHA says this, "Warts are not commonly found in the mouth, so some experts believe that transmission through oral sex is not as likely as with genital-to-genital or genital-to-anal contact." Generally speaking, different strains of HPV have "preferred" locations on the body. If your particular wart strain is comfy in the genitals, this decreases the chances that it will want to hang out in anyone's mouth.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

As far as oral sex goes -- genital warts only extremely rarely infect the mouth, and primarily in immunocompromised people. If neither of you have immune issues, there would be exceedingly little risk of getting oral warts.

If it was me, I wouldn't at all think it necessary to use condoms or dental dams for oral sex, especially if no active outbreak of warts was present. (To add to this, I personally feel that warts in general are really not a big deal; for me personally, an oral wart would be an annoyance, but no real concern.) I realize everyone's comfort levels may differ, so go with whatever works for you, but you are certainly not limited to condoms for oral sex.

As far as PIV goes -- as frolicnaked says, you can't pass HPV back and forth. Once you have a strain, you have it. There's no reason for two people who shared the same strain of HPV to use condoms if they don't want to for other reasons.

I hope you start to feel better about things. The stigma about genital warts is wildly out of proportion to its reality, and I'm sorry it has struck you so hard. I'll be sending happy thoughts your way. :)

[missjecka.livejournal.com]

I just got diagnosed with HPV/genital warts last month. My boyfriend is my only sex partner and he never showed symptoms, but obviously he had the virus and passed it to me. Oh, well.

We talked about it and we're still willing to have oral sex. We use condoms as our sole form of birth control, but if we didn't, we'd definitely have unprotected sex. On a personal level, neither of us are scared of the risk of oral warts and since we both have the virus now, there's no reason to abstain from sex.

[merrylapdog.livejournal.com]

God, I hope I don't get in trouble for saying how bad I feel for people who have this. It's just not fair. :(