Since there is no way to know which will happen, those who think they may have this disease should go to their doctor for an exam and treatment. Wash the medication off 1-4 hours later. Another route for treating external genital warts is cryosurgery. This process involves freezing the warts in order to kill the infected tissue. A probe containing liquid nitrogen is usually used to produce temperatures below -20 degrees Celsius.
Cryosurgery produces better results than podophyllin or trichloroacetic acid.
Electrocautery involves killing the warts through the use of an electrical current, while laser therapy involves removing them through the use of a carbon dioxide laser. It is important that the patient understands that genital warts can be removed through various treatments, but these treatments will not provide a permanent cure for the human papillomavirus. Therefore, once infected by this virus, it will stay in the body s system for a lifetime, often in a dormant state. As a result, recurrences of genital warts are usually the result of the dormant virus becoming active again, as opposed to reinfection by a sexual partner. The virus will only be transmitted to another person if that person comes in contact with viral shedding from the warts themselves.