I am a gay man who has recently started an ongoing sexual relationship. My partner has some kind of growth on his finger that may or may not be a wart. I asked him about it and he said he isn't sure and that it had been there a long time. 

Let's say for the sake of argument it IS a wart: Should I be concerned about him touching my penis or fingering my anus? I have no idea if hand warts are in any way transmissible to the genitals. Should I ask him to put a condom over his finger if he puts his finger in my anus. I know that gay men have to be somewhat concerned about anal HPV and I want to make sure I am not putting myself at any risk for precancerous changes in my anus due to HPV. I also would like to avoid having visible warts on my penis or anus, of course. 

I'd greatly appreciate your guidance on this issue. 

Thanks!

Common hand and foot warts usually are caused by HPV type 1, which is almost never found in genital, anal, or oral HPV infections; apparently it is rarely if ever sexually transmitted. That said, I have no way of judging whether or not your partner's finger bump is a wart or something else; or, if a wart, cannot say for sure what HPV type is the cause.

However, I would advise you to ignore this. As a sexually active gay man, who presumably has had at least several other sexual partnerships, undoubtedly you have been repeatedly exposed to HPV and infected, probably more than once. (HPV should be viewed as a normal, expected consequence of being sexual; at least 90% of all people acquire genital or anal HPV at least once, and mostly more than once.) So exposure to any particular known infection actually doesn't have much impact, statistically, on one's risk of infection or of adverse consequences from it. In other words, the chance you'll someday have an HPV infection that matters -- warts, pre-cancer, or cancer itself (anal, penile, oral) is not likely to be changed by modifying your sexual practices with your new partner. Indeed, even without genital or anal symptoms, there's probably a much higher chance he has unrecognized HPV at those sites than the possibility of a disease-causing HPV of his finger. (And an equal chance you will unknowingly transmit HPV to him.) Finally, gloving for fingering sounds like an inconvenient and unpleasant bummer.

Have you been vaccinated against HPV? If not, please consider it (assuming you are under age 45, and for sure if under 26). The vaccine protects against the 9 HPV types that cause 90% of cancers and genital or anal warts; and although you likely have already been infected with some of those types, probably not all of them.

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.

HHH, MD