Does the Treatment of Genital Condylomata in Men Decrease the Treatment Failure Rate of Cervical Dysplasia in the Female Sexual Partner?

Three hundred ninety women treated for cervical dysplasia by local tissue ablation were studied retrospectively to test the hypothesis that the treatment failure rate is lower if the male sexual partner is also treated. In 190 cases, the male sexual partner was examined and treated successfully for genital condylomata. Controls were 200 women treated during the same time period and closely matched to the study group regarding age, race, socioeconomic status, histologic grade of dysplasia, distribution of the lesions, and methods of therapy, but the male partner was neither examined nor treated. The treatment failure rate for women whose partners were also treated was not significantly different from that for women whose partners were not treated (6.8 versus 7.5%; P>.05), suggesting that treating genital condylomata in men does not affect the failure rate of cervical dysplasia in female sexual partners.