Should I See A Doctor?

It Feels Like A Teensy Cauliflower

Several times now, you've noticed that you felt itchy 'down there' after sex and maybe you've even had a bit bleeding. It can be really frustrating to know what's going on in that area. You take your hand held mirror and strain to get a look, but can't really see much. You put your finger there, to see if there's something there you can feel and you think maybe you feel a small bump. Weird. It feels like a teensy cauliflower. "Great, just great," you mutter to yourself, "What the hell is that?" and wonder if you need to see a doctor.

"This is going to be embarrassing."

"This is going to be embarrassing," you say to yourself as you contemplate whether or not to seek medical advice.

Hoping to find a simple resolution to your problem without having to suffer the indignity of a visit to your gynecologist, you boot up your trusty computer hoping to pinpoint what, exactly, is going on in your nether regions. Maybe it's something silly, a pimple or something, and you'd even look STUPID if you went to a doctor. In your heart, though, you know it's not that simple. If it were, you wouldn't be so worried, and you wouldn't be running to your PC looking for a way out of having to expose your genitals and its small 'crop' of cauliflower (ew) to the gyn.

Taking a deep breath, you type into Google's search field: *vagina* + *bumps* + *cauliflower* + *itching*, and press enter. Your heart thumps as you contemplate the creepiness of your search terms. As the page with your search results loads, you don't have much hope. You think you know what you will find out. And you were right. It's a vaginal wart. You feel your heart sink.

Okay, so you know what it is now, and you'd really like to keep this information on a need to know only basis. Can you avoid going to the doctor?

 Visiting the Doctor

The answer to your question is an emphatic no. Vaginal warts, left untreated, can lead to cervical cancer. Vaginal warts are caused by the human papillomavirus (), which is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). There is, at present, no cure. The bright side is that there is treatment, and even some advice about preventing transmission of the disease to your partner. However, you will need careful monitoring for the rest of your life in the form of regular pap smears to screen for cancer.