One of the most difficult aspects of being diagnosed with any sexually transmitted disease is the knowledge that at some point you are going to have to tell someone else that you are infected. This is a sobering thought for most people because you don’t want to feel ugly or unwanted and there is the unknown of how someone is going to respond. Many people are left wondering, “How do I tell someone I have genital warts?”

Breaking the News

It can be difficult to admit to yourself, let alone anyone else, that you have a sexually transmitted disease. Many people feel cheap and dirty when they admit this fact to themselves, and for this reason they never want to share it with anyone else. Before you tell someone else, you need to accept the fact for yourself. When you accept the information yourself it is a lot easier to tell other people.

The first person or people that you need to tell that you have genital warts are people that you have slept with in the past. You can tell them that you don’t know who or when you contracted the disease, or if you gave it to them, but you wanted them to know so that they could protect themselves as well as other people. Be prepared that some people may feel angry or betrayed, and just let them know that as soon as you knew you shared the information with them. It may be difficult to do this, but it’s an important step in acceptance.

If you get close to someone new, at some point you are going to have the “I have genital warts” conversation at some point before you ever get intimate. You need to have the discussion early on so that you don’t put yourself or someone else in an uncomfortable or unsafe position. The problem is that you cannot cure genital warts, you can remove the warts, but you are not cured. You can pass on the disease to other people, and this is simply immoral.

If you want to be intimate with someone you know that you are really ready when you can have the “I have genital warts” conversation. This is never going to be comfortable, but if you feel like it is not something that you could talk to them about in one million years, you probably shouldn’t be intimate with them, anyway.