Genital warts, also sometimes called venereal warts, are known to doctors as condylomata acuminata ("pointed knob"). Actually, though, all those names are somethi.ng of a misnomer, because very often there's no wart (or any other visible evidence) to indicate that you're infected. In one study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, almost half of women with HPV infections had no visible symptoms at all. Other researchers say there's no visible evidence (at least visible to the naked eye) in closer to 90 percent of cases. In most cases, they say, the evidence of HPV infection can be seen only through a microscope, or the warts are tucked away out of view (such as up inside the vagina, inside the rectum or on the cervix).

If you're a man and unlucky enough to discover visible evidence of genital warts, though, they're likely to show up on or around the head of the penis or (in uncircumcised men) under the foreskin. They can also turn up on the shaft of the penis, on the scrotum, inside the urethra (often making urination painful) or around the anus. In women, warts usually show up on the lips of the vagina, inside the vagina, around the anus or on the cervix. Occasionally, they may even appear inside the mouth of someone who has been having oral sex with a partner who's infected.

Genital warts can vary quite a bit in appearance, doctors say-sometimes they don't bulge at all but appear as low bumps or hard, flat spots. Or sometimes they're bulging, fleshy warts that may be pink, red or whitish and grow fairly rapidly. If left untreated, they take on a cauliflower-like appearance, or there may be so many of them, so close together, that they look like a carpet or mosaic of warts, according to Alan . Gordon, M.D., a gynecologist in Austin, Texas.