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Complementary Medicine / Re: What is the treatment for molluscum contagiosum?
« on: 28/03/2015 19:22:41 »
Hey guys, this forum was extremely helpful to me in dealing with my own case of Molluscum Contagiosum so I promised myself 4 months ago, when I began to seriously treat it, that if any treatment actually worked I would share it on here.
While I have read horror stories of Molluscum cropping back up after years of being gone (really hoping that doesn't happen to anyone), I think I can reasonably declare that I am clear, and in order to make sure, I had a dermatologist fully look everything over and she agreed.
A tiny bit of background and I'll get to what I actually did. Noticed a few small bumps on my pubic area about 9 months ago, thought they were herpes- freaked out. Saw a doctor. She said it was folliculitis and not to worry. Over the next few months I noticed just a few more bumps appearing every so often, sometimes they'd disappear, sometimes they wouldn't. I popped several and noticed a solid white core inside them, online research led me to believe I had molluscum. However, two more doctors dismissed my symptoms as folliculitis or acne. Finally, around 4 months ago, one doctor changed his mind and decided I had molluscum, which was later corroborated by a dermatologist.
Now, I'll switch gears and begin describing the treatments I used.
Liquid Nitrogen: The first doctor advised treatment with liquid nitrogen. I agreed. He used a small spray can and basically sprayed the fluid onto my penis and visible lesions (at this time about . While, it was successful at getting rid of MOST lesions (some required more than one treatment), the treatments left discolorations that 4 months later, are still visible. While they aren't going to ruin my life and may go away with time, I'm still pretty unhappy about them. My conclusion is err on the side of caution with freezing treatments as they definitely have the potential for scarring. Also, as some people have mentioned, while I did notice that while freezing got rid of some of the lesions present, quite a few more appeared. It may or may not have had anything to do with the freezing but again, it made me somewhat distrustful of this method.
Zymaderm: Didn't do anything.
Iodine: Didn't do anything
Curettage: Went to a dermatologist 3 months ago (was pretty unhappy with first doctor on account of the freezing mishap). She opted to use a curette on the lesions. For the most part it worked, and surprisingly, really didnt leave any scars. Unfortunately, she missed several of the small ones and again, I had several more appear in the days and weeks after I left her office. While this method might work if you religiously went every couple weeks and had it done, I, trying for a quicker solution opted for apple cider vinegar. In retrospect, ACV took about 3 months anyway, so I might have been better off just hitting up the dermatologist every couple weeks.
Apple Cider Vinegar: This works. I'm convinced that ANYONE saying it does not work, is not using it properly. Here is why. Acetic acid, the component of vinegar that gives it its acidity, is a relatively strong acid. Strong enough to burn your skin (albeit slowly and not severely). If left on a lesion long enough, it simply soaks/eats through the skin above the molluscum core and being an acid, kills biological entities, including Molluscum. Think of a stronger acid, sulfuric for example. I can 100% promise you that if you were to drop sulfuric acid onto MC lesions, while it would eat a hole through your skin, in the process, it would definitely kill the virus. ACV operates on the same concept, just not quite as dramatically. As an aside, while I don't know if she was fully buying it, the dermatologist actually thought apple cider vinegar was relatively harmless and worth a shot as well.
Here's what I did with the ACV. I took band-aids (all different shapes and sizes), soaked the absorbent pads in apple cider vinegar (applied via a soaked q-tip) and put the band aids on the lesions, replacing them twice a day. Over the next two months, I applied it to any lesion that cropped up, and one by one, got rid of them. The general sequence of events for the individual lesions after application of vinegar is as follows: For the first few days, sometimes up to a week, nothing happened. Then I began noticing the skin around the lesions, under the band aid pad getting irritated. The lesions would come to a really gross white head (I argue it is critical to keep them bandaged and apple cider vinegared during this phase). Then within a few days, the head would turn yellow/black, and fade away. At this point, I'd continue bandaging for about a week and then call it good. One thing to note, be careful with ACV on the actual shaft of your penis (obviously if you're female, this doesn't matter). I got a little overaggressive, treated for too long, and would up with some minor scarring. If you are unsure, just have a doctor/dermatologist curette lesions on the penis, but after they've been curetted KEEP THEM COVERED FOR A FEW DAYS.
After about 2 months of this, I was declared clear. I have held off on posting this until just now, 1 month later in order to be more reasonably sure.
Random advice: Obviously, if the lesions are present in hairy regions, you will need to trim them but DO NOT SHAVE as cutting the lesions open seems to make them spread. I think it is critically important to keep lesions covered up, whether or not you are applying apple cider vinegar. Molluscum might transmit to the skin next to it regardless of whether or not you have it covered but at least by covering the lesions up, you are preventing it from transmitting by rubbing against other. I bleached ALL of my underwear and washed my towels after each use. I washed very carefully in the shower, isolating regions for cleaning and washing my hands between each region (probably excessive but I wasn't taking any chances). I switched over to using paper towels for hand drying as well. I think some of the stuff I was doing was likely just OCD and pretty excessive but I wasn't taking any chances and I mean it worked. The most important things are the apple cider vinegar application and keeping the lesions covered.
LASTLY: While I can't advise you not to listen to doctors, my experience with them was that they did not know as much about this condition as they let on. Research into it seems woefully incomplete and doctors base their decisions on personal experience (limited) and research (here- incomplete). You know your body better than a doctor does, and you are far more invested in your condition than any doctor will be. They are not infallible. Make your own judgments and ALWAYS err on the side of caution. Best of luck to everyone, I really hope this helps. Remember, not having sex while you have this is a bummer, but use the time to learn a new skill. You can turn this awful condition into something positive.
TL;DR- USE APPLE CIDER VINEGAR- IT WORKS
While I have read horror stories of Molluscum cropping back up after years of being gone (really hoping that doesn't happen to anyone), I think I can reasonably declare that I am clear, and in order to make sure, I had a dermatologist fully look everything over and she agreed.
A tiny bit of background and I'll get to what I actually did. Noticed a few small bumps on my pubic area about 9 months ago, thought they were herpes- freaked out. Saw a doctor. She said it was folliculitis and not to worry. Over the next few months I noticed just a few more bumps appearing every so often, sometimes they'd disappear, sometimes they wouldn't. I popped several and noticed a solid white core inside them, online research led me to believe I had molluscum. However, two more doctors dismissed my symptoms as folliculitis or acne. Finally, around 4 months ago, one doctor changed his mind and decided I had molluscum, which was later corroborated by a dermatologist.
Now, I'll switch gears and begin describing the treatments I used.
Liquid Nitrogen: The first doctor advised treatment with liquid nitrogen. I agreed. He used a small spray can and basically sprayed the fluid onto my penis and visible lesions (at this time about . While, it was successful at getting rid of MOST lesions (some required more than one treatment), the treatments left discolorations that 4 months later, are still visible. While they aren't going to ruin my life and may go away with time, I'm still pretty unhappy about them. My conclusion is err on the side of caution with freezing treatments as they definitely have the potential for scarring. Also, as some people have mentioned, while I did notice that while freezing got rid of some of the lesions present, quite a few more appeared. It may or may not have had anything to do with the freezing but again, it made me somewhat distrustful of this method.
Zymaderm: Didn't do anything.
Iodine: Didn't do anything
Curettage: Went to a dermatologist 3 months ago (was pretty unhappy with first doctor on account of the freezing mishap). She opted to use a curette on the lesions. For the most part it worked, and surprisingly, really didnt leave any scars. Unfortunately, she missed several of the small ones and again, I had several more appear in the days and weeks after I left her office. While this method might work if you religiously went every couple weeks and had it done, I, trying for a quicker solution opted for apple cider vinegar. In retrospect, ACV took about 3 months anyway, so I might have been better off just hitting up the dermatologist every couple weeks.
Apple Cider Vinegar: This works. I'm convinced that ANYONE saying it does not work, is not using it properly. Here is why. Acetic acid, the component of vinegar that gives it its acidity, is a relatively strong acid. Strong enough to burn your skin (albeit slowly and not severely). If left on a lesion long enough, it simply soaks/eats through the skin above the molluscum core and being an acid, kills biological entities, including Molluscum. Think of a stronger acid, sulfuric for example. I can 100% promise you that if you were to drop sulfuric acid onto MC lesions, while it would eat a hole through your skin, in the process, it would definitely kill the virus. ACV operates on the same concept, just not quite as dramatically. As an aside, while I don't know if she was fully buying it, the dermatologist actually thought apple cider vinegar was relatively harmless and worth a shot as well.
Here's what I did with the ACV. I took band-aids (all different shapes and sizes), soaked the absorbent pads in apple cider vinegar (applied via a soaked q-tip) and put the band aids on the lesions, replacing them twice a day. Over the next two months, I applied it to any lesion that cropped up, and one by one, got rid of them. The general sequence of events for the individual lesions after application of vinegar is as follows: For the first few days, sometimes up to a week, nothing happened. Then I began noticing the skin around the lesions, under the band aid pad getting irritated. The lesions would come to a really gross white head (I argue it is critical to keep them bandaged and apple cider vinegared during this phase). Then within a few days, the head would turn yellow/black, and fade away. At this point, I'd continue bandaging for about a week and then call it good. One thing to note, be careful with ACV on the actual shaft of your penis (obviously if you're female, this doesn't matter). I got a little overaggressive, treated for too long, and would up with some minor scarring. If you are unsure, just have a doctor/dermatologist curette lesions on the penis, but after they've been curetted KEEP THEM COVERED FOR A FEW DAYS.
After about 2 months of this, I was declared clear. I have held off on posting this until just now, 1 month later in order to be more reasonably sure.
Random advice: Obviously, if the lesions are present in hairy regions, you will need to trim them but DO NOT SHAVE as cutting the lesions open seems to make them spread. I think it is critically important to keep lesions covered up, whether or not you are applying apple cider vinegar. Molluscum might transmit to the skin next to it regardless of whether or not you have it covered but at least by covering the lesions up, you are preventing it from transmitting by rubbing against other. I bleached ALL of my underwear and washed my towels after each use. I washed very carefully in the shower, isolating regions for cleaning and washing my hands between each region (probably excessive but I wasn't taking any chances). I switched over to using paper towels for hand drying as well. I think some of the stuff I was doing was likely just OCD and pretty excessive but I wasn't taking any chances and I mean it worked. The most important things are the apple cider vinegar application and keeping the lesions covered.
LASTLY: While I can't advise you not to listen to doctors, my experience with them was that they did not know as much about this condition as they let on. Research into it seems woefully incomplete and doctors base their decisions on personal experience (limited) and research (here- incomplete). You know your body better than a doctor does, and you are far more invested in your condition than any doctor will be. They are not infallible. Make your own judgments and ALWAYS err on the side of caution. Best of luck to everyone, I really hope this helps. Remember, not having sex while you have this is a bummer, but use the time to learn a new skill. You can turn this awful condition into something positive.
TL;DR- USE APPLE CIDER VINEGAR- IT WORKS