# molluscum **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987 "2006-07-25T18:18:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rhiannon777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@rhiannon777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhiannon777)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/1 "2006-07-25T18:18:30Z")
Can anyone here tell me about their (or their “friend’s”) experiences with molluscum? I’ve thorougly searched online, so I’m more interested in personal experiences than facts. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/2 "2006-07-25T18:31:26Z")
Ahh, not clams: [Molluscum contagiosum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molluscum) ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/3 "2006-07-25T18:50:12Z")
It sounds very much like warts, are they related? PS molluscum is my new least favorite word. ---
**Author:** ![rhiannon777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@rhiannon777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhiannon777)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/4 "2006-07-25T18:51:08Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > It sounds very much like warts, are they related? They look like warts, but they’re caused by a virus similar to chickenpox. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/5 "2006-07-25T19:41:08Z")
I was wondering why folks would have to invoke their “friends” to talk about mollusks, unless they were prarie squid or something. Couldn’t they have chosen a less confusing name for this affliction? ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/6 "2006-07-25T21:12:37Z")
\ Asking opinions, huh? I’m moving this thread, warts and all, to IMHO. As you were. \ ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/7 "2006-07-26T11:01:22Z")
I don’t remember beans about how to cure molluscum, but I sure do remember how pretty it looks under the microscope. Once stained and frozen in toxic formaldehyde and paraffin wax, that is, and locked up safely behind a glass cover slip. That stuff’s contagious!!! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/8 "2006-07-26T14:12:31Z")
> [@Wikipedia link](#): > > …infects humans, other primates and kangaroos… **mind boggles** ---
**Author:** ![Kairos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecc23a/32.png) [@Kairos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kairos)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/9 "2006-07-26T19:54:58Z")
I’ve had it. (Bah…none of this “friend” crap.) I have no idea where it came from, since my sexual partner at the time didn’t have it (and never contracted from me) - the best guess the doctor could make was that I picked in up from a hot tub. Anyway, I had all these little red bumps on my legs. I didn’t worry about it for a long time - it just looked like a mild rash, or maybe a really mild case of razor burn. I finally showed my doctor, and she sent one in for a biopsy, to make sure it wasn’t anything weird. Once she got the diagnosis back from the lab, I had to go in and get each of the little bumps burned off with dry ice. I went back a few more times to make sure we got them all, and I haven’t seen a little bump in years. For me they were inconvenient - ugly and a bit itchy - but otherwise no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/10 "2006-07-26T19:55:53Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > **mind boggles** Oh, please. Don’t tell me you’ve never once done it with a kangaroo. Look, it happens to all of us at some point. You have a little too much to drink, and suddenly that marsupial in the corner of the bar starts looking like an exotic new playmate. Ahh, he was the gentlest and most giving lover I’ve ever had . . . :: slips into reverie :: ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/molluscum/365987/11 "2006-07-26T20:01:51Z")
My husband had this, got it during the Gulf War, Episode One, from (as he tells it) unsanitary conditions in the desert. His girlfriend (not me, this was before my time) diagnosed it upon his return to the US (they were in his crotchal region). The Corpsmen at the base hospital kept sending him to the VD ward, but finally after the third or fourth visit the duty doc that day was a dermatologist, and agreed with the g/f’s diagnosis. Due to time constraints (and my husband’s attitude, probably), the doctor took what has been described to me as an itty bitty melon baller looking scalpel, and scraped the infected sites until the “core” came out, all without any anesthesia. Marines are tough. Hopefully civilian remedies would be more humane.