What is it?
Molluscum Contagiosum is a harmless virus infection.
How do I get it?
Molluscum is transmitted through skin to skin including sexual contact.
Molluscum contagiousum is an infection which causes spots on the skin. It is usually harmless and rarely needs treatment. The infection causes small, pearly, fluid filled bumps with a central dimple on the skin surface. Usually the papules are painless but they may itch sometimes.
There are no routine laboratory tests for mollescum, it is diagnosed by looking for the characteristic features of molluscum, so a clinician will examine the lumps you have noticed. This examination can be done by your GP or at a sexual health clinic.
What is recommended is expectant management which simply means no treatment at all .
New molluscum spots may appear while old ones disappear, and it will usually take 12– 18 months for infection to completely resolve, though occasionally even longer (up to a few years).
- Avoid shaving, electrolysis or waxing your genital area
- Avoid squeezing molluscum spots as the central plug is full of infectious virus which is easily spread to uninfected skin and you risk introducing a secondary bacterial infection.
- Avoid sharing towels, bedlinen and clothes.
- Avoid sharing sex toys
**Using a condom while having sex can reduce the risk of passing on MC during sexual contact**
