On the Lighter Side > Complementary Medicine
What is the treatment for molluscum contagiosum?
Tomassci:
TL;DRF. Also worried this is not good cure. So my advice: GO SEE A DOCTOR. A real one.
cakeplz:
sorry for the necro, but I read this entire thread (yes entire) when I first came down with MC (around base of penis and one lesion on shaft), and wanted to come back and register just to add my own advice now that I'm through it.
there's some insane advice in here IMO, and many things that will hurt far more than they will help.
background: I am 29, male, white, and caught MC from a pool party at a festival in early september. didn't notice bumps til early october. was scared about genital warts; went to Planned Parenthood and diagnosed with MC. frustrated after learning it can take a year or more to clear up.
after many hours of internet "research" and reading forums, looking for miracle cures, I decided on two paths of action for myself:
1. do NOT touch the MC for any reason
2. keep MC area sanitized
3. try to help my body beat it from the inside
#1. involved self-control, luckily mine never itched too much. I always washed groin last, and dried off groin with paper towel instead of touching it with my towel
#2. after some research, I bought generic Betadine (povidone-iodine) and cotton balls. After every shower, I scrubbed the lesions and surrounding area with Betadine before putting on underwear. sometimes I would do this again after coming home from work, and going to bed. after reading about Betadine, my logic was that it would protect the surrounding skin from getting more lesions, and also would kill the existing MC if it happened to penetrate deeply enough.
#3. I have a fairly rigorous immune system as it is (some years I don't catch a single cold). I eat mostly plant based, with simple ingredients focusing on whole (see: real, unprocessed) foods. My typical vitamin regimen is a once/daily, and cal/mag/zinc. I decided to add some things to my regimen to (ideally) help my body fight the virus once it realized it was there. I took extra vitamin C on and off, along with shots of apple cider vinegar (note: do NOT use this topically, no matter what you read. it is incredibly harsh and chances are it does a lot of damage to your skin instead of helping). something else I took was oil of oregano, a product I use on and off from time to time internally. it is a hot oil, so you mix 1 or 2 drops into a teaspoon or tablespoon of other oil (like olive or almond), and take it like medicine. it is a potent antiviral and antimicrobial, but do not take it internally for more than 10 days.
this is already long so I'll wrap it up. all in all it took about 6 months for the last MC lesion to be gone. there is no way for me to know if anything I did sped up the process at all. I think the sanitation of the area was the best thing I did, because besides the initial lesions I only ever got 1 new one through the entire 6 months. I think this was due to my not touching the MC and sanitizing the area.
note: none of my lesions went away on their own. they each eventually got larger and white, like an angry pimple. that's when they started to itch. within a day or two of that point, I would pop them. this was INCREDIBLY painful to be honest, more than I expected. they do not pop easily like a pimple. the white stuff inside is the virus, and what you absolutely HAVE to remove. my method was to douse my fingers and/or 2 q-tips in betadine, then pop the pimple with them. immediately get rid of the white head, then scrub the inside of the lesion with the betadine q-tip. it will hurt but you wanna make sure you get in there with the betadine to kill any remaining virus. I could never find a bandaid that would stick well to the area (groin) afterwards, but as long as get all the white out and sanitize the area afterward you'll be fine.
my tips in a nutshell:
1. do NOT touch the MC
2. sanitize the area often, I recommend Betadine
3. take some extra supplements, they can't hurt (vitamin C, zinc, apple cider vinegar, oil of oregano)
4. be patient!
please avoid insane advice like attempting to surgically remove every single lesion yourself immediately, and using apple cider vinegar. the more the MC spreads, the longer it will take to heal, so that should be your number one priority.
LBoy:
22 Year old male. Likely contracted from grinding which was unprotected, though the sex was protected. Took almost 2 months since I noticed the bumps before I got treatment (noticed early March, diagnosed late April, started treatment end of April). I am not out of the woods yet but I believe and really hope I am close.
In terms of treatment, I first went to the dermatologist to get the bumps frozen. Within a day, I noticed new bumps. Now given the gestation period being 2-4 weeks, these were obviously bumps that just appeared despite being present already. You're only supposed to get treatment every two weeks so I waited. But as more bumps started to appear I called in early and they let me come in. They said if I see bumps before two weeks, they will treat them sooner. So 10 days after the first time I went in again. Then every 7 days for the next 3 weeks I continued to have to go. At this point I was getting sick of it. It was already the end of May, I should've only had to have had 2 treatment sessions and I should be nearing the end. I was not. So, per the advice of this forum I started to treat the virus myself.
A day after my fourth cryo treatment I began using Apple Cider Vinegar. I kept the cotton swabs on over night on certain areas I was noticing new bumps. And it revealed a whole lot more than I was able to see when I woke up. Panicked, I continued to apply the ACV and then scheduled another cryo appointment for only 5 days after the one I just had. I wanted to attack it with everything I could. With all cryo appointments they also applied some "treatment" after cryo which was a blistering agent, but for all previous times I did not blister. This time I really did, it was painful. Because of the areas the bumps were in, they kept popping. I was afraid this would cause it to spread, and perhaps I have not seen the result of this yet. So I waited for a few days to let the blisters heal before I continued to attack it myself. I did not see any new bumps for 3-4 days, a new record. This also gave time for the blisters to heal. Then I continued to attack new bumps with AVC for about 18hrs a day. The area got inflamed and it was painful, but it killed those bumps so it was ultimately worth it.
Some new bumps are still appearing but I want to offer some advice.
1. DO NOT WAIT to get treatment & diagnose. This will only allow it to spread undetected and make it take longer to get rid of.
2. Do not touch the area. Do not masturbate, do not have sex.
3. If you are doing cryo, do it in tandem with ACV. This will allow both you and the doctor to find new bumps easier & faster. And will help you get rid of this quicker. Honestly, apply the ACV before your first cryo visit so you can know all of what needs to be treated. Be upfront with your doctor about your home remedies.
Like I said, I've yet to get rid of all the bumps. It is now early June. I feel like I'm close to the end but I did notice some new lesions the other day. I was quick to treat them with ACV. I have another cryo appointment in 2 days. I feel like if I'm able to kill all of my current lesions I will be able to heal within 2-3 weeks from today. If I continue to get new lesions, I don't know how long this could last. Don't wait like I did.
LBoy:
Follow Up:
I now seem to be clear of molluscum. I still have a few scabs/dead skin left to heal from Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) on skin adjacent to the bumps but that should clear up within a week or so. Now that I'm at the end of this harrowing journey, I will post my solution:
ACV is the best/fastest method for both larger and smaller outbreaks, here is how to treat your molluscum effectively if on your penis shaft:
1. Get tough wrap joint wrap, cotton balls, small gauze pads and apple cider vinegar. You will apply the ACV to the gauze pads or cotton balls depending on the size of the affected area. If you want to play it safe despite only knowing of a smaller area, use the gauze pad.
- If cotton ball: soak it in ACV and place on area with lumps. Wrap your penis with the joint wrap to secure in place. This is better than tape or bandages for the following reasons: the joint wrap does not stick to skin, does not stick to hair, and is easier to both put on and remove.
- If gauze pad (for larger areas/peace of mind): soak it in ACV while folded up, then unfold to wrap fully around your penis shaft. Unfold as much as needed for your size, tape any areas necessary to allow yourself to pee freely. You can double up on areas which you know are infected. Now wrap your penis with the joint wrap to secure the gauze in place.
2. Now that the ACV is in place, keep it on your body for 10-18 hours. Shower after. When you remove it, any areas with molluscum will have a noticeable change in color. They will likely be a white color, potentially yellow at this stage. If you see this occur in other areas than which the molluscum was visible, this is a good thing! That means you're able to treat molluscum you weren't even aware of. This is why the ACV method is better than cryotherapy, cryo only treats spots which are visible.
3. Repeat the process until the center of the molluscum turns black. I suggest applying again immediately after showering as this will treat the molluscum the fastest but know that it will likely be painful to reapply this quickly. Take an aspirin if you must and just bear through the pain, the pain will only last the first few hours of the ACV being applied. If you must, wait a day or two until the pain is less... just know the healing time will take longer for every day you wait.
4. In about 3 sessions of application for the 10-18hr timeframe, the molluscum should be dead. However, repeat as you feel necessary. At this point, you need your skin to heal. It will scab & crust over, it won't look pretty. But within about 1-2 weeks your skin will be fully healed.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version