I have warts inside at the vaginal opening and no external ones. Will shaving irritate my skin and cause the warts to appear externally as well? Or is it ok to shave since I have no external warts?

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Home / Answered Questions / I have warts inside at the vaginal opening and no external ones. Will shaving irritate my skin and cause the warts to appear externally as well? Or is it ok to shave since I have no external warts?

I have warts inside at the vaginal opening and no external ones. Will shaving irritate my skin and cause the warts to appear externally as well? Or is it ok to shave since I have no external warts?

I have not been able to find any research that looks at whether shaving spreads genital warts.

In our STI clinic it is common for us to treat genital warts. We see clients who shave their genitals and to us it doesn’t appear like there is any difference on how the warts will grow when compared to the people who don’t shave. Given this I would say that it is ok to shave.

I would just recommend not shaving over the genital wart and to just use the razor on your genitals. E.g. don’t use the same razor to shave other parts of your body.

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Health Nurse

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This answer was posted on February 23, 2015.

This answer was updated on February 7, 2022.