Hi All, 

I am a 22 year old female who unfortunately contracted molloscum in my genital area as a sexually transmitted disease, and let me say, I would never wish this upon anyone. Its absolutely terrible, stressful, highly contagious and can be expensive to treat and get rid of. I had to abstain from sexual activity for months before finally finding a home remedy that worked for me which put a huge strain on my relationship. 

I'm writing this in the hopes that it will help others who are having this same issue. Here is my full experience with it and what I did to get rid of the bumps. It was a lot more simple than I thought but involved months of trial and error. 

First I tried tea tree oil. This did a good job at minimizing the size of the bumps and inflammation, but wasn't strong enough to stop the spreading and found that every time a few pesky bumps went away, another came up in their place. 

While using the tea tree oil, I was also washing the area with tea tree oil based soap at least 3-4x  a day. I thought this was helping, but all it was really doing was drying out my skin, washing off the tea tree oil, and potentially (and this is just my opinion and I have no idea what the actual scientific mechanisms of this area so please no rude comments if this is false), but I think the constant washing of the area may have been getting rid of important oils or antibacterial things on my skin that would be working to get rid of the molloscum, but all I was doing was constantly washing them off and starting from square one. 

Next I tried Zymaderm which is available for purchase in Walgreens. Its almost $34 for an extremely tiny bottle. The bottle ended up lasting only 3-4 days because I was blanket covering the entire area instead of just indiviudal bumps which I know the bottle advises not to do, but thought that just putting it everywhere would stop the spreading before it happened. This again just dried out my skin, I was washing the area too much, and blew right through the bottle this way and decided that for such little success and small amount of product it wasnt cost effective and ditched it.

I also tried the apple cider vinegar because I heard many had success with that. This was along with the constant washing of the area. The ACV just smelled absolutely horrible and everyone could smell it when I was near them, and on top of that tried out my skin so horribly to the point where it was raw and painful. Not to mention how painful further application of the AVC is with that on top. That was out.

Duct tape occlusion was attempted at one point as well. As you can imagine, this was painful when it came to pulling the duct tape off and I also found no success in stopping the spreading, though I will be upfront that I only tried it for a night or two. 

** side disclaimer, I never tried the cryotherapy, burning them off, etc. that doctors perform because others online have said they are extremely expensive and I figured in my case, it would again just get rid of bumps that were already there but not stop more from popping up, as that is an immune system issue keeping more from coming. 

I'm only including what DIDNT work because I want to not only express how frustrating this can be, but to remind everyone to stay patient and find what works for you as much as it sucks. 

anyway, finally to what DID work, which I should have tried all along. 

SUCCESS: I gave in and bought another bottle of the Zymaderm because after extensive research online I found that was the highest rated home product. The biggest factor was I STOPPED using the tea tree oil based soap or washing and cleaning the area religiously. This was a huge game changer. Obviously I would wash during my morning shower, and at night before bed, plus changing underwear or clothing that came in contact about 2x a day. But only washed the area 1-2x a day, giving the skin a chance to fight the infection itself instead of washing everything off and starting from square one every few hours. I then applied the Zymaderm once in the morning when I woke up, but ONLY to the bumps and no where else. Before each application I would give a quick swab of tea tree oil to the entire outside genital area, but no soap or extensive cleaning. And found that this within only a few hours dimished the size and redness of the bumps and within 1-2 days they were completely gone upon application of Zymaderm once upon waking up, another time in the evening when I got home from work around 5, and then once again before going to bed. 

At this point I am essentially 97% molloscum free and no sign of a new bump in days *knocks on wood*. This is the most success ive had so far after nearly 2 months of trial and error and hundreds of dollars spent on different products, soaps, essential oils and Zymaderm. So hopefully the takeaway from this message is to go straight for the Zymaderm and NOT wash the area constantly. 

I really hope this helps at least someone because I totally understand the grief and stress this causes, and can only imagine how frustrating it is for young children who have it in areas that are highly spreadable. 

Good luck everyone, and be patient. Don't listen to the doctors who tell you to "wait it out" take action! 

-K