Warts: Causes and Treatments

Most warts are harmless, but they spread easily. Consider these treatment options.

Leigha Winters, College Student Writer

Jen Hawkinger, MPH

Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Charlotte Miller, High School Writer

Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Warts are small, hard growths on the skin that can affect almost any part of the body. They are common, and most are harmless and painless. However, they do tend to spread easily.

Warts can be transmitted from one person to another through contact with:

Skin
Towels
Clothing

Although there are many different types of warts, all warts are caused by some strain of the human papillomavirus (HPV).

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, people who are more prone to develop warts are:

Children and teens.
People who bite their nails or pick at hangnails.
People with a weakened immune system.

Genital Warts

You may wonder if it’s possible to spread hand or foot warts to a genital region. Fortunately, hand warts are a different type of HPV than genital warts.

Genital warts are caused by just a few specific strains of HPV. Hand warts don’t transmit to genital areas, or vice versa. These viruses have different preferences for tissue type or location.

in the body. Hand warts transmit to hands, foot warts to feet and genital warts to the anus and genital areas (and rarely to the mouth or throat).

Genital warts spread through sexual contact (vaginal, anal or oral), genital contact, or childbirth (from infected mother to baby).

Treatments

There’s no cure for the wart virus, but most warts eventually go away on their own (it may take a year or two). If your wart is bothering you or spreading to other parts of your body, you may want to get treatment.

Before you try self-treatment, make sure to talk to a parent or your doctor. Never self-treat a wart on your face or genitals without seeing your doctor first. Your doctor can help you determine the best treatment, minimizing any side effects. Some primary care providers treat warts, while others may refer you to a dermatologist (skin doctor).

Over-the-counter medicines containing salicylic acid are available to treat hand and foot warts (not genital warts). There are also prescription medicines available to treat all kinds of warts.

Doctors can perform in-office procedures to remove warts. Two common procedures used for both hand and foot warts and genital warts are freezing the wart (cryotherapy) and cutting out the wart (excision).

Other options also exist, especially for hard-to-treat warts and genital warts.

Last reviewed: January 2020