Can smoking make genital warts come back?

This lesson is part of the WARTES HPV Masterclass. Preview: the first part of the narration.

There is one question I always ask my patients with genital warts: "Do you smoke?" Some of them are surprised. "Doctor, what does smoking have to do with the warts in my genital area?" In fact, quite a lot. Because smoking does not only affect your lungs.

It can also weaken your immune response against HPV infection in the genital area. And we have important scientific research on this. In a large study of more than 58,000 women, smokers had a 27% higher risk of being diagnosed with genital warts than non-smokers.

And the more cigarettes a day, the higher the risk. In another study, about 2,800 men were followed. Here too, new episodes of genital warts were more frequent in smokers. So how does smoking do this? HPV is a virus that can settle in the cells of the deepest layer of the skin.

The job of your immune system is to recognise the infected cells and keep the infection under control. But smoking can make this defence harder.

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