A lot is shared at home

One bathroom, one sofa, one washing machine. At home you share a lot without thinking about it. With molluscum, I started thinking about exactly that. With almost every object, I asked myself whether I could pass it on to someone.

This article is not a guide. I write down what I experienced and what I read in reputable sources. What applies to your household is best clarified with a doctor.

I didn’t live alone during that time. I lived with my partner. So the question of whether I might pass it on to them was there every day.

What I read about how it spreads at home

According to the US health agency CDC, the virus is passed on through direct skin contact and through objects that have touched the bumps, for example towels, clothing or toys. The British NHS also names shared towels as a possible route.

A British long-term study from 2015 shows how easily this can happen in close everyday life. In it, the molluscum of 41 per cent of the affected children also spread to other children in the same household. The study is about families with children. I didn’t find comparable figures for adult households.

That figure made me think. It shows that passing it on within your own home is nothing unusual. And it also shows that nobody has to have done anything wrong when it happens.

I also read on DermNet that there are often about two weeks between infection and a visible bump, but it can be up to six months. That is why it is often impossible to say who caught it from whom. I write more about this in the article How long is molluscum contagious?.

Towels: my fixed rule in the bathroom

The first thing I changed was the towels. I kept mine separate from other people’s. That was my fixed rule in the bathroom.

Separate towels are the point I came across most often in the sources. It was in the CDC’s text, the NHS’s, and almost every other reputable text I read.

How much the subject of towels weighed on me also shows in the fact that I gave up holidays for those two years. I write more about this in the article Molluscum and holidays.

Bedding, clothing and my own laundry

In a leaflet from a Scottish sexual health network I read that it advises not sharing bedding with others, as well as towels. Several sources also name clothing as a possible route of transmission.

I didn’t find a specific washing temperature, or advice to replace laundry, in any reputable source. The sources talk about not sharing things.

Even so, I was afraid the molluscum would keep coming back through my own laundry. So during that time I washed my laundry separately and at a particularly high temperature. On top of that I bought loads of new underwear and other laundry so that I could wear something new every day. That came to several hundred euros, and new spots appeared anyway. I write more about this in the article What molluscum cost me.

But I understand well why I acted that way. When new spots keep appearing, you want to do something that is in your own hands. The washing machine and the next shopping trip were exactly that.

Disinfecting and feeling unclean

I disinfected affected areas and paid close attention to hygiene. Even so, I often felt unhygienic during that time, especially at home, where you actually want to relax.

On top of that came the shame. Even at home I didn’t want the subject to be visible all the time. I often felt alone with it.

In none of the sources did I read that molluscum is a sign of poor cleanliness. I write more about everyday hygiene in the article Everyday hygiene with molluscum.

Talking about it

If you live with other people, they notice things: separate towels, new laundry, constant checking. I often felt I had to explain something, and at the same time I didn’t want to. Molluscum is a taboo subject, even within your own four walls.

Looking back, I think factual information can make a conversation easier. A site such as gesund.bund.de (in German) or the NHS explains the basics calmly and without an interest in selling anything. That way everyone can read up on what it is about.

For us it went like this: at first we talked about it openly. Over time it became an exhausting topic that never went away, and at some point we stopped talking about it altogether. That too is part of that time for me.

What I take away from it

At home I felt I constantly had to be careful. Much of it was consideration, some of it was fear. If things are similar for you right now: a conversation with a doctor can clarify what matters for your household, especially if children live there.

After two years it was over for me. Was it coincidence? I don’t know. How it came about, I tell in my story.