Intimate Wellness & Regenerative Gynaecology in Dublin | EC Clinic

What are genital warts, exactly?

Genital warts are benign skin growths caused by the human papillomavirus. They are an overgrowth of normal skin cells, driven by a virus that has entered the outer layer of the skin, usually through microscopic breaks that occur during skin-to-skin contact.

They can appear on the vulva, in or around the vagina, on the cervix, around the anus, and in the groin. They vary in appearance. Some are soft and slightly raised, some are flatter, some cluster and some appear singly. They may be entirely painless, or they may cause itching, irritation or discomfort, particularly if they are in an area subject to friction.

What they are not is cancer. This is the single most important sentence in this article, and it is the one I repeat most often in consultation. The HPV types that cause visible genital warts are described as low-risk types, most commonly types 6 and 11. The types associated with cervical and other HPV-related cancers are different, and they are called high-risk types. Having warts does not mean you have a high-risk infection, and it does not mean you will develop cancer.

It is possible to carry both a low-risk and a high-risk type at the same time, because these infections are common and exposure to one does not protect you from the other. That is precisely why the right response to warts is not only to remove them, but also to make sure your cervical screening is up to date. Removal and screening are two different jobs. For screening options, see our private cervical check.

How common is HPV, really?

Common enough that treating it as shameful makes no epidemiological sense at all.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. The great majority of sexually active people will acquire at least one type during their lifetime, usually within a few years of becoming sexually active, and in most cases the immune system clears it without the person ever knowing they had it. Only a minority of infections produce visible warts, and only a minority of high-risk infections persist long enough to cause cellular change.

Irish public health messaging reflects this scale. When the Department of Health and the HSE describe the HPV vaccination programme, they note that the vaccine protects against the HPV types responsible for approximately ninety per cent of cervical cancers and approximately ninety per cent of genital warts. A vaccination programme of that scale exists precisely because the virus is ubiquitous, not because it is rare.

I want to place that alongside something I hear in the room. Patients say to me, but I am not that kind of person. There is no kind of person. There is a virus that transmits through ordinary skin-to-skin contact, that condoms reduce but do not eliminate because they do not cover all the skin involved, and that most adults will meet.

Does having warts mean my partner was unfaithful?

No, and I want to answer this directly because it does real damage to relationships.

HPV can remain dormant in the skin for months or years without producing any visible sign. Warts can appear long after the original exposure, and the timing is influenced by the immune system, by stress, by pregnancy, by smoking and by other factors that have nothing to do with when the virus was acquired.

This means the appearance of a wart tells you almost nothing about when infection occurred, and therefore cannot be used as evidence about a partner. I have had this conversation many times, in three languages, and the relief on a patient's face when she understands the biology is one of the reasons I think this article needs to exist.

The other side of that is honest too. Someone in a long-term relationship can develop warts from an infection acquired years earlier, and a current partner may carry the virus without ever showing a sign. That is not a reason for blame in either direction. It is a reason for both people to be informed.

How does CO2 laser removal work?

A CO2 laser emits light at a wavelength that is strongly absorbed by water. Skin tissue is mostly water, so the energy is absorbed almost entirely at the point where it lands and converts to heat, vaporising the treated tissue in a controlled layer. Because absorption is so efficient, the depth of effect is highly predictable and the tissue immediately alongside is protected.

Two practical consequences follow. The first is precision: I can treat a lesion in a delicate anatomical area, including areas where the skin is thin, without damaging what surrounds it. The second is that the laser seals small blood vessels as it works, so bleeding is minimal and the field stays clear, which in turn makes the treatment more accurate.

This is the important distinction that I make in every consultation on this subject. The use of CO2 laser to remove a wart is surgery performed with light. It is an established, mainstream application, and it sits in a completely different evidence category from the marketing use of the same wavelength for so-called vaginal rejuvenation, which is not proven. I use the tool for what the evidence supports.

In practice, a session for genital wart removal with CO2 laser at EC Clinic takes about thirty minutes. Local numbing is used where needed. Most patients describe the sensation as mild, and most return to their ordinary daily routine shortly afterwards. Full pricing is published on our price list.

Is it painful, and what is recovery like?

Discomfort is usually mild. Numbing is applied where needed, and the procedure itself is short. Afterwards, the treated area behaves like any small superficial wound: it may feel tender or sting for a few days, and it will form a thin crust that separates as the skin closes underneath.

The aftercare I give is simple and mostly about leaving things alone. Keep the area clean and dry, wear loose cotton underwear, avoid swimming pools, saunas and hot tubs while it is healing, avoid sexual activity until the area has closed, and do not apply any cream, oil or antiseptic that has not been agreed at your appointment. If you notice increasing pain, spreading redness, an unusual discharge or a fever, contact the clinic rather than waiting.

You will be told at your appointment when to expect healing to be complete, and when to return for review. Reviews matter here, and the next section explains why.

Will they come back?

They can, and any clinic that promises otherwise is not being straight with you.

Removing a wart removes the lesion. It does not remove the virus from the surrounding skin, which may still carry HPV in cells that look completely normal. Recurrence after any wart treatment, whether laser, cryotherapy, topical therapy or excision, is well recognised, and it usually happens within the first few months if it is going to happen at all.

What reduces the odds is a combination of complete initial clearance, treating early rather than letting lesions spread, giving the immune system a fair chance, and planned follow-up so that anything new is dealt with while it is still small. Stopping smoking genuinely helps, because smoking is associated with reduced clearance of HPV.

I would rather set this expectation at the start than have a patient believe her treatment failed. Recurrence is not failure. It is a known feature of a viral condition, and it is managed.

• Treat early. Small lesions are quicker, more comfortable and less likely to spread.
• Attend the planned review appointment even if everything looks fine.
• Stop smoking if you smoke. It is associated with poorer viral clearance.
• Keep cervical screening up to date. It is a separate and equally important track.
• Tell the clinic if you are pregnant or planning pregnancy, because timing and technique are adjusted.

What about my partner, and what about screening?

Partners do not need to be treated unless they have visible lesions of their own. There is no useful routine test for HPV in men in this context, and treating an asymptomatic partner does not change your outcome. What is worth doing is an honest conversation, so that a partner who develops a lesion knows to have it assessed rather than ignoring it.

Screening is different and it is not optional. In Ireland, CervicalCheck provides free cervical screening for eligible women, and the programme now uses HPV testing as the primary screening test, which is a more sensitive way of identifying who needs closer attention. Attending on schedule is one of the most effective things any woman can do for her long-term health. Check your own eligibility and interval at cervicalcheck.ie, and if you are new to Ireland, register so that your invitation reaches you. Private cervical checks are also available at EC Clinic if you need one sooner.

Because genital warts are sexually transmitted, it is also reasonable to consider a wider sexual health screen. It is not that warts imply anything about your character. It is simply that infections travel by the same route, several are asymptomatic, and finding them early is straightforward. I discuss this with patients without drama and without assumptions.

Does the HPV vaccine still help if I already have warts?

It does not treat existing lesions, but it can still be worth discussing.

The vaccine used in Ireland is Gardasil 9, which covers nine HPV types including the two low-risk types responsible for the large majority of genital warts and seven high-risk types associated with cancer. It works best before exposure, which is why it is offered to girls and boys in first year of secondary school through the HSE schools programme, and why the Laura Brennan catch-up programme exists for those who missed it.

If you already have an infection with one type, the vaccine cannot undo it. What it can do is protect against the other types you have not yet met. Whether that is worthwhile for you as an individual depends on your age, your history and your circumstances, and it is a conversation to have with a doctor rather than a rule to apply to everyone.

If you grew up outside Ireland and were never offered the vaccine, this is a particularly worthwhile question to raise. Many of my patients arrive from countries where the programme started later or reached fewer people, and nobody has ever discussed it with them.

Why see a gynaecologist rather than dealing with it alone?

Because the lesion is the smallest part of the problem.

When you come to me with what you believe are genital warts, four things happen. I confirm the diagnosis, because not everything that looks like a wart is one. I treat it appropriately, with a technique suited to the site and the extent. I place it in context, which means checking that your cervical screening is current, discussing wider sexual health screening if relevant, and asking about anything else that has been worrying you and that you were not going to raise. And I answer the questions you have already searched for at two in the morning, properly, with time. You can book genital wart removal or a general gynaecological consultation directly.

At EC Clinic you can book directly without a GP referral. Appointments are private, examinations and ultrasound are done in the same visit where indicated, and you leave with a written report on the same day. Consultations are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese, which matters for a conversation this personal. Nobody should have to describe an intimate symptom in their third language and hope it was understood.

I have practised in three countries and moved to two of them as a foreigner. I know what it is to sit in a health system whose rules you do not yet understand, worried about something private. That is the experience this clinic was built to remove.

Medically reviewed by Dr. Eliana Castañeda, Obstetrician-Gynaecologist and Aesthetic Specialist · 11 August 2026

— Dr. Eliana Castañeda
Obstetrician-Gynaecologist and Aesthetic Specialist