I am a 32-year-old married woman who just had my first child in  August of this year. :-) To say that he is the absolute light of my  life does not describe how I feel about him. For those of you who  have children, and for many who do not, I’m sure you understand how I  feel about my baby.    I was first diagnosed with HPV in the summer of 1994. I am not sure  who I contracted it from, as I was in my early 20′s and kind  of “living it up” having been experiencing newfound adult freedom. I  was taking birth control pills and did not always use condoms with my  sex partners (very stupid I know — in hindsight I am VERY lucky that  I didn’t end up with more than one STD or something even worse than  HPV). Anyway, when I was first diagnosed, a nurse practioner painted  my warts with acid and I suppose some went away, some didn’t.    Over the past eight years I’ve had regular gynecological exams at  least every six months on average. I’ve had abnormal cells found of  my cervix, yet the doctor has said that they’re not abnormal enough  to be classified as cervical dysplasia. Once I had to have a biopsy  done on my cervix, and everything came out clear (this was about four  years ago). Since then, my pap tests have come out clean.    I’ve been dealing with the warts rather than treating them because I  am of the opinion that since I regularly get screened for cervical  cancer, I feel that they are more of a nuisance and a cosmetic  problem more than a serious health issue.    Last September (2001), I married the man that I love after he had  accepted me, warts and all. Strangely enough, after four years of  sexual activity with this man (mostly unprotected sex), he displays  absolutely no signs of HPV. His penis is wart-free. (Does anyone  find this strange or know how this could be possible?)    Also, I had a perfectly healthy baby — no problems with baby or  pregnancy itself (besides my warts multiplied considerably, which  I’ll get to later). I had a C-section only because the doctor  thought the baby might be too big for a vaginal delivery. The  decision to have the C-section was in no way related to my wart  problem.    Anyway, over the past couple of years the warts have spread to my  rectal area. This is quite uncomfortable, especially after a bowel  movement. Does anyone else experience intense itching after a bowel  movement, or slight mucus discharge from the rectum? Is this common?    As I said, when I was pregnant, the warts multiplied considerably. I  went back for my postpartum pap test six weeks after my baby was  born, and the doctor gave me a prescription for Condylox to put on  the warts. Well, I didn’t get it filled. I didn’t get it filled  because (a) I have apparent false hope that the warts will go away on  their own (after 8 years with this problem, how could I think that?  Call me Queen of Denial), (b) I didn’t want the burning sensation  that the Condylox will undoubtedly cause and (c) I was afraid that I  would not apply it properly thus damaging “healthy” skin around the  warts.    Okay, now…    I got a call from the doctor’s office last week saying that I needed  to come in again to get my pap smear done over because the lab did  not have enough cells from the original test to perform their  analysis. So, this Monday I went in to get it redone. During the  examination, my doctor suggested that we schedule outpatient laser  surgery (under general anesthesia at a local hospial) for my wart  removal.    The part of the examination that really scared me is that there is a  new part of my vulva that has been itching since mid-pregnancy. He  took a teeny-tiny biopsy of this area to see if it might be  cancerous. He said if it is cancerous, a vulvectomy may be in  order. WOW. I AM TERRIFIED. He said not to worry about that  because he really just took a very very small portion of the area and  that given my age, etc. he doesn’t think that it really will be  cancerous. This was just not very comforting to me. I asked him  what it was about the spot that made him want to biopsy it, and he  said he wanted to check it because it is whitish in color and kind of  rough. (I think this might just be due to the scratching I’ve been  doing — does anyone else think this might be the case?)    Anyway, I guess my questions in addition to the questions above are  this:    1. Has anyone else out there just “tolerated” the warts for as long  as I have? If so, how are you doing now?    2. Have any of you had a biopsy done on your vulva? What was the  outcome of the biopsy and what is your treatment? Has anyone had a  vulvectomy? How has that affected your sex life? Were you able to  have a baby afterward?    3. What about laser surgery? Will it help? How long do you bleed  afterward? How painful is it really, and for how long? When can you  resume sexual relations?    I am hoping to have one more child. I’m so depressed over all of  this. My natural mother passed away at 52 from ovarian cancer and  I’m scared shitless. (She, in fact, had warts burned off when she  was pregnant with me — I’ve always kind of wondered in the back of  my mind whether I inherited the warts from her, although the doctor  says that that probably is not a possibility.)    *sigh* So many problems. If I can’t have another child, I will of  course be happy with just the one I have, and thankful for that, but  I obviously need to stay cancer-free and healthy to be with him. :-  ( Any support will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for listening.