Do I Have to Treat my Warts?

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Warts can crop up pretty much anywhere on your body, and on some places they can be much more of a nuisance than others. If in large clusters on, for example, your face or genitals, chances are you’ll want to get treatment as soon as possible. Where they appear in ones and twos in an unobtrusive part of your body you might be wondering whether there is any need to seek treatment at all ,which is a fair enough question if you aren’t particularly fussed about them and don’t want the hassle or cost of pursuing treatment.

Can I get away with not treating my warts?

For most kinds of warts choosing not to treat the condition won’t have any serious consequences on your health, provided of course that you don’t suffer from an immune disease like HIV or AIDS which would make you more vulnerable to the virus causing the disease. For certain kinds of warts, it becomes more important to seek treatment for a number of reasons. Oral warts, which as the name suggests, appear in your mouth, tend to be more of a concern than other types because of a potential link to cancer, and while finding that you have an oral wart is no cause for panic, it is always safest and most advisable to seek a doctor’s advice about what to do.

Plantar warts are another type of wart that you should seek treatment for, not because of any impending danger to your health, but because of the pain that can sometimes be associated with plantar warts, it can often be a good idea to seek treatment for the condition. Plantar warts are painful because of their location on the soles of your feet, and as you walk around your weight is put on to your feet, driving the warts deeper into your feet, causing pain.

If you suffer from periungual warts, the kind that appear around or under your nails, then treatment is definitely a good idea because of the potential damage they can cause to your nails and person. These warts can grow to become big enough to damage your finger nails, either deforming them or even causing them to fall off. In some cases, the wart can work its way into the nail plate, which will cause a much more serious fungal infection.

As a sexually transmitted disease, genital warts should definitely be treated if you are engaging in regular sexual activity with one or multiple partners. Even if you are using condom, there is no guarantee against a potential infection.

Even if you don’t suffer from these warts, treatment, or at least covering up the warts, is recommended simply because of how contagious the condition is. In terms of your health however, for many common warts that crop up you can in fact choose not to opt for treatment, and here’s why?

What happens if I don’t treat my warts?

The reason why you can get away with not treating common warts and the like is because of your body’s natural defence mechanisms. Warts are caused by a virus called the human papilloma virus (HPV), and your immune system is designed to deal with invaders like HPV, so given enough time, your body adapts to the illness and will learn to prevent infection by HPV in the future. The downside however is that it takes some time for your body to learn how to deal with invaders, which means you might have to put up with warts for anywhere from a few months up to a couple of years, during which you can easily pass on the very contagious virus.

Immunity is very variable, and while some people will be extremely resistant to the virus that causes warts, others are extremely susceptible. Similarly some people will be able to naturally deal with an HPV infection quite quickly, while others will find they are afflicted with warts for much longer than they’d like. At the end of the day your body is unique to you, meaning that there are no set rules for how quickly or effectively you will be able to naturally deal with an infection. If you have any concerns about how long your body is taking to sort out your warts, then it is always wisest to arrange to see your GP about the condition and get a professional assessment of your situation.

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