Clinic/hospital genital wart removal in Bangkok

[a1falang]

I have a pair of small warts on my shaft. Yay. I'm seeking advice from those who have walked in my shoes. I'm looking for advice about:

1. A clinic/hospital where at least some of the nurses and doctors are male

2. Doctors who actually deal with HPV genital warts, not just prescribe some generic cream for general warts

3. The most appropriate treatment (creams, acid, liquid nitrogen etc.) will be recommended, not the most expensive e.g. CO2 lasers

4. Reasonably priced i.e. not Bumrungrad prices

What I'm not looking for:

1. People who have NOT had genital warts treated in Bangkok themselves "advising" me to try X Hospital after a random Google search

2. Anecdotal stories they heard from a "mate" and can't verify firsthand

3. Advice about "home remedies" like apple cider vinegar (tried it, didn't work)

4. Off-topic posts about diet, safe sex, HIV tests

I just want to go somewhere, see a competent doctor and receive appropriate treatment with no fuss or BS. Thanks!

[Showbags]

DIY...dry ice. works wonders and job done.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On Sunday mornings from 9 am until about noon at St. Louis Hospital on Sathorn Rd. near the Surasak BTS Station, you can see Dr. Thanit in the Dermatology Dept.

He works at the non-profit and reasonably priced St. Louis Hospital one day/morning per week, and the rest of the time works in a higher-priced private dermatology hospital in BKK. I've been to him in the past at St. Louis and previously when he worked at, I believe, it was BNH Hospital. He's competent and knows what he's doing.

One thing I'd advise is to call ahead and check with the Derm. Dept. ahead of time, just to make sure he'll be there on the Sunday you're intending. Sometimes, he seems to take a day off, but he's there most Sunday mornings. Not all the nursing staff there speak English, but some do. So if you start off any phone call asking to speak with the staff who can speak English, things will go more smoothly.

[Sceptict11]

Go to the Red Cross Anonymous clinic.

Thai Red Cross · Anonymous Clinic

104 Ratchadamri Road

Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330.

Tel. 02-252-2568-9

Edited December 1, 2013 by Sceptict11

[liddelljohn]

Dry ice is prefered method , lasers also used but usually on body warts but if you have the balls it can be done at home with a soldering iron , and antiseptic

[a1falang]

On Sunday mornings from 9 am until about noon at St. Louis Hospital on Sathorn Rd. near the Surasak BTS Station, you can see Dr. Thanit in the Dermatology Dept.

He works at the non-profit and reasonably priced St. Louis Hospital one day/morning per week, and the rest of the time works in a higher-priced private dermatology hospital in BKK. I've been to him in the past at St. Louis and previously when he worked at, I believe, it was BNH Hospital. He's competent and knows what he's doing.

One thing I'd advise is to call ahead and check with the Derm. Dept. ahead of time, just to make sure he'll be there on the Sunday you're intending. Sometimes, he seems to take a day off, but he's there most Sunday mornings. Not all the nursing staff there speak English, but some do. So if you start off any phone call asking to speak with the staff who can speak English, things will go more smoothly.

Thanks TallGuy that's exactly what I'm looking for.

[a1falang]

Go to the Red Cross Anonymous clinic.

Thai Red Cross · Anonymous Clinic

104 Ratchadamri Road

Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330.

Tel. 02-252-2568-9

Thanks Sceptic, what was your experience there like?

[a1falang]

On Sunday mornings from 9 am until about noon at St. Louis Hospital on Sathorn Rd. near the Surasak BTS Station, you can see Dr. Thanit in the Dermatology Dept.

Update: I arrived at St Louis around 10 am Sunday with no appointment and was seen within 20 minutes, including registration time. Quite efficient. A quick examination and Dr. Thanit suggested liquid nitrogen. Five minutes and was done. He also asked if I wanted to buy the cream he recommended at an outside pharmacy rather than the presumably overpriced hospital pharmacy. Nice to be given a choice. The final fee for the visit and treatment was 1960 baht, though, a bit pricey for me. (The cream was 230 baht at Watsons.) As I might have to go back for another cryogenic blast next weekend, I'm looking at cheaper clinics or hospitals that offer the same treatment.

[Showbags]

You ignore good advice.

Go buy a Swensons cake and you get free dry ice and DIY.

You then get to stuff yourself sick with cake for a week.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On Sunday mornings from 9 am until about noon at St. Louis Hospital on Sathorn Rd. near the Surasak BTS Station, you can see Dr. Thanit in the Dermatology Dept.

Update: I arrived at St Louis around 10 am Sunday with no appointment and was seen within 20 minutes, including registration time. Quite efficient. A quick examination and Dr. Thanit suggested liquid nitrogen. Five minutes and was done. He also asked if I wanted to buy the cream he recommended at an outside pharmacy rather than the presumably overpriced hospital pharmacy. Nice to be given a choice. The final fee for the visit and treatment was 1960 baht, though, a bit pricey for me. (The cream was 230 baht at Watsons.) As I might have to go back for another cryogenic blast next weekend, I'm looking at cheaper clinics or hospitals that offer the same treatment.

That total sounds a bit high for St. Louis, but maybe not...

I'm presuming the doctor fee should have been in the 600 to 800b range, then some add-ons for nursing and facility. Dunno the charge for the cryo treatment, though I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't close 500-1000 for that, depending on how much needed to be treated.

FWIW, price alone might not be the first thing I'd be thinking about, especially when it comes to choosing a doctor to freeze/burn part of my willy...

[Sceptict11]

I hope you were offered (and accepted) a full STD screening .

[txp158]

Podophyllotoxin or podophyllin is the most prescribed medication for Thai people. It's the cheapest way to get rid of genital ward aka condyloma acuminata which it is caused by HPV as oppose to genital ward which is the result of syphilis infection aka condyloma lata.

It causes severe skin irritation tough. So you'll have to be very careful when you apply the medication not to have it on the normal skin, but it works 100%. Any public hospitals in Thailand has it, I'm not sure whether every one of them would prescribe it for home use due to side effect.

[a1falang]

I hope you were offered (and accepted) a full STD screening .

I wasn't but I will go for one.

[a1falang]

Podophyllotoxin or podophyllin is the most prescribed medication for Thai people. It's the cheapest way to get rid of genital ward aka condyloma acuminata which it is caused by HPV as oppose to genital ward which is the result of syphilis infection aka condyloma lata.

It causes severe skin irritation tough. So you'll have to be very careful when you apply the medication not to have it on the normal skin, but it works 100%. Any public hospitals in Thailand has it, I'm not sure whether every one of them would prescribe it for home use due to side effect.

Good advice. I'll try that next time. The 2000 baht hurt more than the liquid nitrogen.

[fauxrang]

On Sunday mornings from 9 am until about noon at St. Louis Hospital on Sathorn Rd. near the Surasak BTS Station, you can see Dr. Thanit in the Dermatology Dept.

A bit late here... does Dr Thanit specifically only do genital warts at St Louis - or could someone go in with say... a growth on their arm they wanted removed.

[Sheryl]

St. Louis is pretty much the least expensive private hospital in the Bkk area.

For less expensive than this you need to use government facilities.

[fauxrang]

OK. The poster indicated that this Dr normally works at a more expensive place - but shows up once a week for this non-profit to treat stuff at low cost. I am just curious if this is *only* to help people with genital warts... or help people with anything.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The doctor at St. Louis I mentioned above is a general dermatologist. He deals with all kinds of skin issues, not just the kind the OP was asking about.

I believe I met him originally when he was pretty much full time at BNH Hospital, but later moved to a new private skin hospital in the Asoke area. I'm not sure why he does the one day per week stint at St. Louis (although St. Louis and BNH are very near each other), other than that, it's pretty common for Thai doctors to have office hours at different hospitals, including both government and private.

[billycrudup]

Just wanted to throw in my 2 baht, since I literally just had the CO2 Laser procedure done at Bumrungrad an hour ago. It helps to have up-to-date info for people.

Had the same thing done in Malaysia about 2 years ago, but a couple of the buggers resurfaced last week, so I made called for an appointment this morning. Called at 10am and was talking to the doctor (Chittipon) at the 3rd floor Skin Clinic at 1pm. He took a quick look and outlined my options. Since the warts were relatively new (but growing fast), a topical cream could possibly do the trick (I'm assuming he was talking about Aldara). As others have mentioned, this is a lengthy process and not too reliable, compared to the other options. Next was freezing, which is painful, but fairly reliable and recommended for less severe cases. This is actually what he suggested, but I was up for getting out the big guns and opted for CO2, as I'm more interested in getting this over and done with asap.

They brought me up one floor where a nurse applied a topical numbing agent. I had to wait 45 minutes until they were sure that it had an opportunity to work its magic. Into the treatment room and off come my shorts and I'm up on the table waiting for Chittpon to come back and work his own magic. A male nurse was on hand to help out. Not sure if the nurse being male made me more or less comfortable, as I've no idea what the little fella might have done if some of the cute female nurses were in the room.

During the treatment, the first thing you notice is the smell. Not unlike a ripe fart after a night of drinking Guinness. Not pleasant, to say the least. The topical cream is indeed magical, as you can't feel a thing (other than just a slight bit of pressure). However, upon further inspection, the doctor noticed a few 'micro-warts' that had not been seen earlier and he opted to just zap them then and there. They were in areas that no numbing agent had been applied, so the pain was pretty intense. Again, they were 'micro', so he just had to zap them for a split second and then the pain was gone. Still, that was definitely the most unpleasant part of the experience. I guess my only advice would be to have the initial inspection be a bit more thorough, or ask for the numbing agent to be more liberally applied. I was given some Bactroban antibiotic cream to help with the healing process (which is estimated at about a week, although he said it'll probably be much faster in my case). The resulting 'wounds' are like light-colored scabs, nothing too gross.

Total damage was 9500THB, all in. I have no doubt there are cheaper alternatives, but I am fine with paying a premium to ensure that the little fella has plenty of more mileage in him.

Hope that helps someone out there in the future.

[asdfghelena]

Dr Donna used cryotherapy for me (freezing off with liq. nitrogen) and it cost 800 Baht in total! treatment worked perfectly and was so quick and easy and painless! it was at Medconsult clinic, really great service.

Just wanted to throw in my 2 baht, since I literally just had the CO2 Laser procedure done at Bumrungrad an hour ago. It helps to have up-to-date info for people.

Had the same thing done in Malaysia about 2 years ago, but a couple of the buggers resurfaced last week, so I made called for an appointment this morning. Called at 10am and was talking to the doctor (Chittipon) at the 3rd floor Skin Clinic at 1pm. He took a quick look and outlined my options. Since the warts were relatively new (but growing fast), a topical cream could possibly do the trick (I'm assuming he was talking about Aldara). As others have mentioned, this is a lengthy process and not too reliable, compared to the other options. Next was freezing, which is painful, but fairly reliable and recommended for less severe cases. This is actually what he suggested, but I was up for getting out the big guns and opted for CO2, as I'm more interested in getting this over and done with asap.

They brought me up one floor where a nurse applied a topical numbing agent. I had to wait 45 minutes until they were sure that it had an opportunity to work its magic. Into the treatment room and off come my shorts and I'm up on the table waiting for Chittpon to come back and work his own magic. A male nurse was on hand to help out. Not sure if the nurse being male made me more or less comfortable, as I've no idea what the little fella might have done if some of the cute female nurses were in the room.

During the treatment, the first thing you notice is the smell. Not unlike a ripe fart after a night of drinking Guinness. Not pleasant, to say the least. The topical cream is indeed magical, as you can't feel a thing (other than just a slight bit of pressure). However, upon further inspection, the doctor noticed a few 'micro-warts' that had not been seen earlier and he opted to just zap them then and there. They were in areas that no numbing agent had been applied, so the pain was pretty intense. Again, they were 'micro', so he just had to zap them for a split second and then the pain was gone. Still, that was definitely the most unpleasant part of the experience. I guess my only advice would be to have the initial inspection be a bit more thorough, or ask for the numbing agent to be more liberally applied. I was given some Bactroban antibiotic cream to help with the healing process (which is estimated at about a week, although he said it'll probably be much faster in my case). The resulting 'wounds' are like light-colored scabs, nothing too gross.

Total damage was 9500THB, all in. I have no doubt there are cheaper alternatives, but I am fine with paying a premium to ensure that the little fella has plenty of more mileage in him.

Hope that helps someone out there in the future.

[tpazzi]

On 5/3/2016 at 11:23 AM, asdfghelena said:

Dr Donna used cryotherapy for me (freezing off with liq. nitrogen) and it cost 800 Baht in total! treatment worked perfectly and was so quick and easy and painless! it was at Medconsult clinic, really great service.

I just finished cryo wart treatment at MedConsult and can second asdfghelena's recommendation.   The office is on Sukhumvit Soi 49/9, about a 15 minute walk from the Thong Lo BTS stop.    I had made an appointment the day before and was seen by the doctor without delay.  After examination & consultation,  the actual treatment process took about 15 minutes.    

You should know that the staff is all female but everyone is professional and easy going.   Dr Donna Robinson is British and has been in Thailand for 25 years.  She mentioned that she performs quite a few cryo removals and based upon my experience, her technique is effective to isolate the wart without excessive exposure of the surrounding skin area.    

I was also able to finish the Hep A/B vaccination series during my visit, a welcome bonus.       

The fee for the cryo treatment was 1250.   (There were additional charges for the office consultation and vaccinations.) so you might want to expect a slightly higher fee range (maybe 1500 to 2000) if you are just going for cryo.

I recommend you make an appointment so the office can make sure to have their liquid nitrogen tank filled and ready for your  visit.

Heere is their website:    http://www.medconsultasia.com/

 

[Andrew Wang]

Dr Donna did cryotherapy for me and it costs only 1300 baht 

 

just had it done for the second time and it worked really well both time

 

Aldara doesn't work so well, you just need liquid nitrogen straight away - its not painful too