subject: Genital Warts Causes - How Did I Get It? [print this page] It is very common, after you have received a diagnosis of genital warts, to wonder, how did I get this? Genital warts causes are sometimes hard to understand, but really it comes down to one virus called HPV, which stands for human papillomavirus. There are hundreds of kinds of HPV, and it is estimated that about 40 of them can cause infections and warts growth in the genital area. Most genital warts, however, are the result of HPV-6 and HPV-11.
The good news about HPV-6 and HPV-11 is that they are low risk as far as their potential to cause cancer in the future. There other kinds of HPV that are a much higher risk of changing conditions in the uterus that could lead to eventual cervical cancer. Some of these are HPV-16, HPV-18, HPV-31, and HPV-45. These are called high risk HPV types. Another name for them is oncogenic. 100% of cervical cancer cases are believed to have started with HPV. Genital warts causes are always from one of the HPV types.
Genital warts are almost always passed from partner to partner during sexual contact. It is important to note that the warts you get on your hands and skin are different kinds of warts from HPV genital warts. Genital warts causes are from HPV and not any other kind of wart virus. The rate of passing on genital warts to an uninfected partner is very high - it is believed that up to 66% of those who have sexual contact of any kind with an infected partner will develop the warts within a few months.
Some people think that those who have genital warts are those who used birth control pills at a young age. It's true that having sexual intercourse without protection increases the risk of transmission and of infection. If you have several sexual partners, or have sex at an early age, this increases your risk of getting infected with HPV or genital warts. Genital warts causes include little pieces of the virus that are able to break through the skin and other mucous membranes through tiny tears in the genital region. This happens during sexual activity. Even after infection with HPV, there may not be any signs of any kind of HPV or genital warts. This means you are in a latent period. Later the outbreaks appear, sometimes up to three months or more after the infection occurred.
