Can I get HPV from having warts on other parts of my body (hands, feet)?
No, you can't! The types of HPV that cause plantar's warts, warts on the hands, and warts on any other part of the body are not the same as the kinds that cause genital warts. Therefore, they are also not transmittable to the genitals. If you have genital warts, do not blame it on the fact that you had warts on other parts of your body in the past. This is a new kind of wart, and you got it sexually.

Can I get genital warts if someone who has a wart on their hand touches my genitals?
Because warts on the hands and feet are caused by different types of HPV than genital warts, this is highly improbable at best.

Can I get HPV from toilet seats, bath towels, swimming pools, hot tubs, etc.?
NO! Although occasionally I have read some "research" saying that you can, the general consensus of healthcare professionals such as ASHA and Planned Parenthood is that no, you can only get it from sexual contact. If you could get it from toilet seats, we would ALL have it.

How about from kissing?
No. You can't. Period. So stop worrying. :)

Touching someone down there who's infected?
Yes, this is possible, if you touched that person's genitals and then your own. The virus will get on your hands temporarily and then you can transmit it to yourself. This is why I would always suggest washing your hands thoroughly and preventing any kind of "smearing" of fluids. If you are messing around but not having sex, and one of you is NOT infected, doing this carefully and making sure you don't do the touch-swipe thing will prevent him/her from getting HPV, but it is still a risk (though a smaller one).

Oral sex?
Possibly, although it's not nearly as common as genital HPV. There's always a big debate going on about this on the HPV clubs at Yahoo. There are websites out there for oral HPV and recurring respiratory papilloma (HPV in the throat), and they say that there are two strains of HPV that CAN cause oral warts: strains 6 and 11. These warts most commonly come about because a mother gave it to a baby at birth, but even then, it is only 1 out of every 400 babies (pretty low risk). If a person contracts it in their mouth later on in life, the website I was reading said that the cause is "unknown," meaning they don't have enough evidence to say for sure that it was transmitted sexually, but it could be and I'm sure that in some cases it is. There is also the fact that 25% of oral cancers contain HPV type 16 (don't remember where I read this), and so it appears that the dysplasia-causing types of HPV can be transmitted through oral sex. But then again, you must remember that the amount of the population which has oral cancer is pretty small, comparatively, and then take 25% of that small amount - so it's not nearly big enough of an epidemic for us to say that it's definitely transmissible orally all the time.

I emailed an AIDS researcher one time because they know about this kind of thing. This researcher told me that the prevalence of oral HPV, even in the AIDS population (who can't fight the virus), is only about 3%. Therefore, yes, you can get it - but it's uncommon. (If you want to see what he wrote to me, word for word, click here.)

One note about this, though: I am not certain if so few people get oral HPV because most of us aren't infected in the mouth, or simply because it's much less common to show symptoms in the mouth than it is in the genital area. So that's something to think about.

Even though it's rare, I wouldn't recommend oral sex when you have an outbreak. Yuck! Oh, and there are things you can do to protect your mouth, like using plastic wrap for oral sex (health department keeps telling us that all the time). Use your own judgment.

Here is what ASHA had to say about transmitting HPV through oral sex and through hand/genital contact: click here.

Sex with a condom?
Yes, you can, and you will. Do NOT think of condoms as a way to protect against HPV, and do NOT have sex with someone who has it unless you are fully prepared to infect yourself. Read my page on condoms for more info.

How about having sex with someone who has HPV, but has not had symptoms in a long time?
The longer it's been, the better your chances of staying uninfected. It all depends on how long this "a while" is and on that particular person's immune system. HPV is a temporary problem in that although researchers aren't sure whether the body ever completely eradicates the virus itself, they do agree that eventually, a person who has had it in the past will no longer be contagious. So depending on how healthy your partner is and how long ago they have had an outbreak (months versus years versus decades, for example) you may or may not become infected. You need to logically assess your risk by considering that person's pattern of symptoms in the past and also their general state of health, and if you do have sex, be willing to take the chance of infection.

If I have HPV, is it possible that my sex partner doesn't have it? Should I worry about infecting him/her if we have already been having sex?
If you have already been having sex with someone and were just diagnosed with HPV, then your sex partner has it too, even if they are not showing symptoms now and never do. Keep in mind that most people who have HPV become carriers of the virus rather than showing symptoms. If 80% of sexually active people have this virus, then why aren't we seeing more people who know they have it? Because most people are carriers! So assume that your sex partner is already infected, and do not worry about infecting him/her. Also, just because you are the one with the symptoms does not mean that you gave your partner the virus. They could have given it to you just as easily, even though they show no signs of it.

If my partner and I both have HPV, can we pass it back and forth by having sex? Will we re-infect each other all over again?
No, because you weren't cured in the first place. Once you have a strain of HPV, you have it, and that's it. Since both of you now have the same kind(s), then you need not worry about re-infecting each other. It's kind of like the chicken pox, you get it and that's it. HOWEVER, keep in mind 2 things: 1. that it is possible to infect areas of your genitals which were not infected before, so having sex with an infected partner could spread the virus (worry about this mainly if you have active symptoms), and 2: that there are some 23 plus strains. If you were to break up with your partner and find a new partner, and that new partner also had HPV, there's a darn good chance that he/she will not have the same kind as you, and you could therefore get another kind, on top of what you already have.

Will using tampons spread the virus?
No, you can use tampons and do everything else as you normally would.