Your concerns for your partner say a lot about the type of person you are, and that seems to be rare these day, so I commend you for that.

If you've had genital warts in the past, you will still carry the virus, even though the warts have been removed or gone away on their own (which is common in most cases). Because of this, they can pop back up at any time, particularly during times of illness or stress.

HPV is a very, very common disorder, and around 80% of women will have it by the time they're 50. However, there are about 30 different strains of sexually transmitted HPV, and only two of them are responsible for causing 90% of genital warts (types 6 and 11). Thankfully, most people that aquire strains that cause genital warts never have any symptoms, and usually are never even aware that they have HPV. In fact, only 10% of people who have HPV actually develop warts.

Condoms do reduce the likelihood of passing HPV, but it's not 100% effective, even when used correctly. If you did pass an HPV virus strain to her (and it's possible you may have more than one), it may take weeks, months, or even years before she develops symptoms, and that's if she even develops symptoms at all, as most people do not. Since you used protection, the chances that she contracted it are markedly reduced, but there's about a 1 in 2 chance that she has some strain of it already.

The only test that would usually be necessary is a regular yearly pap smear, which is recommended for all sexually active women anyway, since some strains of HPV can cause abnormal changes in cervical cells, and in rare cases, cervical cancer. The types that usually are occasionally are responsible for cervical cancer (16 and 18) do not cause genital warts, so you may not even be affected with these strains. If she were to ever develop warts, these will usually go away on their own in time, but there's also treatment, as you know. Even if she ever did develop signs of genital warts or cervical dysplasia (from HPV) somewhere down the road, there would really be no way to say if you gave it to her or not, since it can take weeks to years to show up. Either way, genital warts are not harmful (just more annoying), and with regular pap smears, having any serious cervical problems is extremely unlikely.

Though it is possible to develop HPV warts in the mouth and throat, these are quite rare. There are DNA HPV tests available, but these are usually reserved to look for cervical cancer and use cells from the cervix. If she contracted HPV in the mouth or throat (which would be, again, very unlikely), she would only need to be treated if she developed warts in this region. There is no cure for HPV, as it is a virus and remains in the nervous system for life, even though it may not be active most of the time, so there would otherwise be no preventative treatment for developing warts. Just try to remember that getting oral HPV from oral sex is extremely unlikely, and then developing warts as a results is even more rare. HPV does not cause throat cancer, and only affects the cervix in causing abnormal cell changes. Any kind of risk from oral sex is so minimal that it's really not worth worry about for either of you at this point.

Gardasil is available only for women 26 and younger to protect against four strains (6, 11, 16, 18). They're testing the vaccine for older women, but it simply isn't available yet. The rationale is that a large part of cervical cancer cases occur in women from the ages of 15 to 25, and most women already have HPV by the time they're older than 27. Since they virus is not effective against people who already have those particular strains of HPV that it protects against, it hasn't been thoroughly tested in this age group, and is not yet offered. It's said that the data will be in by 2008 whether or not older women have a positive response to Gardasil, and hopefully, the age group that it's given to will be extended after that time.

As far as the best treatment route, she should continue to get regular yearly pap smears, as all sexually active women should. Otherwise, as long as she has no other symptoms, there's no need for treatment, nor is treatment available. This is true whether or not she has HPV, because, as I mentioned, most people have the virus without have any kind of infection, symptoms, or outbreak. They can simply carry the virus without it affecting them, and once you get the virus, there's no way to get rid of it. There are treatment options available to treating symptoms should they pop up, but this does not eradicate the virus... it remains in the nervous system for life.

As far as using public showers, this is something that you don't need to avoid. Genital HPV and warts is a seuxally transmitted disease, and a person can't catch warts by using a shower you previously used. There is, however, a small possibility that if you rub your penis with a towel while you have warts, and then someone else does the same with the same are of the unclean towel, that they could theoretically catch HPV themselves, but the risk is small, and I doubt anyone does this anyway.

I hope this answers your questions... let me know if you have any further ones!