How do you get genital warts? This is a question asked by many people. These warts are also called venereal warts or even anal warts and are an infection that is transmitted sexually. It is a highly contagious infection that is caused by the Human Papillomavirus, also called HPV and its strains and subtypes. The strain type 6 and 11 are actually the ones that cause infection in almost 90% of the cases. In fact only about 1% of the people who get infected actually develop a full blown case of warts.
Some of the subtypes of this infection are more likely to respond to treatment than others, while some others can be linked to the early signs of cancer. In females, genital warts can lead to cervical cancer and in the case of males can cause cancer of the penis and anus.
Genital Warts: Spread By Sexual Contact
When you are trying to understand how you get genital warts, you should know that it is transmitted by sexual contact, which can be vaginal, anal or even oral, with any person who is infected. The warts appear to be either flat with stalk like appendages or clustered and flowered like a cauliflower and can be seen in the genital and rectal area. Most of the genital warts appear to be colourless and are more or less painless.
So it is clear that you get genital warts is through direct contact with the infected person, skin to skin. However it is not necessary that everyone who has exposure to an infected person will contract the infection. For those who need to know how you get genital warts in pregnant women, one must realise that it is possible for a mother to pass on the virus to her unborn baby even if there are no apparent symptoms.