Although HPV isn't curable in all cases, genital warts are treatable. You can also go extended periods of time without an outbreak, but it may not be possible to get rid of the warts forever. That's because genital warts are only a symptom of HPV, which may become a chronic, lifelong infection for some.
Is there a cure? No. HPV is a chronic, lifelong infection. However, as many as one out of every three people with genital warts find that they go away on their own – usually within two years.
Sometimes, the immune system clears the warts within a few months. But even if the warts go away, the HPV might still be active in the body. So the warts can come back. Usually within 2 years, the warts and the HPV are gone from the body.
Warts can come back after you have managed to get rid of them. This may happen weeks, months or years after they first appeared. You can try and prevent this by keeping yourself and your immune system as healthy as possible by eating well and exercising.
Genital warts can be treated, but they can't be cured. You're removing the warts, but you'll still have the HPV that causes them. The HPV may go away at some point on its own, but there's no way to know for sure. Some people will get warts again and others won't.
Time to recurrence
Of all women with at least one recurrence (n = 306), 44.6% experienced the recurrence within 12 weeks, 69.1% within six months and 82.9% within 1 year. In 8.1% of the study patients first recurrence was observed more than 3 years after primary treatment of genital warts.
Around 90% of HPV infections clear within 2 years. For a small number of women and people with a cervix, their immune system will not be able to get rid of HPV. This is called a persistent infection. A persistent HPV infection causes the cells of the cervix to change.
Most strains of HPV go away permanently without treatment. Because of this, it isn't uncommon to contract and clear the virus completely without ever knowing that you had it. HPV doesn't always cause symptoms, so the only way to be sure of your status is through regular testing.
You can get the virus and never actually get warts, so you could be infected and not have any symptoms. Some people only get warts once, and then never get them again. Some people have warts develop more than once (recurring).
Why Do My Warts Keep Coming Back? If you have attempted to treat your warts, but they continue to come back, the treatment has failed to kill the virus. The wart was removed, but the virus is still present. Your immune system may not be strong enough to fight off the virus.
Biting your nails also can cause warts to spread on your fingertips and around your nails. Each person's immune system responds to the HPV virus differently, so not everyone who comes in contact with HPV develops warts.
Anyone who has had sex can get HPV, even if it was only with only one person, but infections are more likely in people who have had many sex partners. Even if a person delays sexual activity until marriage, or only has one partner, they are still at risk of HPV infection if their partner has been exposed.
More than half of men who are sexually active in the U.S. will have HPV at some time in their life. Often, men will clear the virus on their own, with no health problems.
Is HPV Contagious Forever? Most cases of HPV clear up on their own after one to two years, and you'll no longer be contagious once it leaves your system. However, the virus can remain dormant for years, and some people experience infections that stick around for much longer.
The majority of oncogenic oral HPV infections cleared quickly, with a median time to clearance of 1.4 years (interquartile range = 0.5-3.9 years). After 7 years of follow-up, 97% of incident and 71% of prevalent infections had cleared.
Most of the time, cervical cell changes (abnormal cells) don't come back after treatment. However, sometimes they do and may need further treatment. These cell changes are also called persistent or recurrent cell changes.
It's possible. In most cases, your immune system will eventually get rid of an HPV infection within 2 years. But HPV can stay in our bodies – sometimes without us knowing about it, as it is not detected with a test. This is called dormant or clinically insignificant HPV.
Most sexually active couples share HPV until the immune response suppresses the infection. Partners who are sexually intimate only with each other are not likely to pass the same virus back and forth.
HPV is a very common STI. Among 15- to 59-year-olds, 2 in 5 (40%) people will have HPV. There are many different types of HPV; most do not cause any health problems. HPV is a different virus than HIV or (HSV) herpes.
Unlike other STIs, there is no treatment for HPV, so it is not necessary to disclose HPV to current or previous sexual partners.
Genital warts are usually a sexually transmitted disease (STD). They're caused by HPV (human papillomavirus). This virus also can cause some types of cancer.
Fortunately, warts aren't dangerous and they don't lead to cancer — that's why the types of HPV that cause genital warts are called “low-risk.” However, they may cause irritation and discomfort, and you can pass the HPV that caused them to other people.
Can you have genital warts without having HPV? No, while not all strains of HPV cause genital warts, all genital warts are caused by some strain of HPV. However, some people mistake moles, skin tags, or other sores for warts. It's best to have a healthcare provider look at them to know for sure.
Sometimes certain types of “high-risk” HPV can develop into cancer if left untreated. Other “low-risk” types of HPV can cause warts on your vulva, vagina, cervix, rectum, anus, penis or scrotum. Genital warts are common — about 360,000 people get them each year.