The question I asked myself most
I had molluscum for about two years. During that time I checked my skin four or five times a day. Some spots got better, but new ones appeared. And every time, the same question hung in the air: how much longer?
Back then my dermatologist told me that six to eighteen months or longer were not unusual. It was honest, but hard to live with. Later I read a lot about it. I write down what I found here. It is not a medical assessment and does not replace talking to a doctor.
What clinical guidelines say
The figures in reputable sources vary surprisingly widely. In the clinical guideline of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne I read that most cases clear up on their own within six to nine months, but spots can also last longer than a year. According to the guideline, they only disappear completely once the body develops an immune response, which can take anywhere from three months to three years.
A guideline from NHS Lothian in Scotland gives six to eighteen months, sometimes longer. That is almost exactly the range my dermatologist gave me. The German health magazine Apotheken Umschau writes that molluscum usually disappears on its own after a few months, but sometimes stays on the skin for years.
The most detailed figures I know come from a British long-term study from 2015 with more than 300 children: a little over 13 months on average, and 13 per cent still had spots after two years. I describe it in more detail in the article Molluscum that won’t go away.
A new study from 2025
Something new I read was a retrospective study from the US published in 2025 in the journal JAAD International. The researchers reviewed the records of 252 patients at one clinic from 2013 to 2023 and tried to reach them by phone for a survey. Of those, 89 responded.
Without treatment, their molluscum lasted just under ten months on average, with a wide range. With treatment it was eight and a half months on average. The researchers found no clear difference between the two groups. They point out themselves that the evidence on how it runs without treatment is thin and contradictory.
One point in the study made me stop and think: among the respondents who had not been treated, almost a quarter reported scars or changes in skin colour. The study is small, and the answers are based on people’s memories. Even so, it surprised me that molluscum apparently doesn’t disappear without a trace in everyone.
Why the figures differ so much
While reading, I noticed that most studies were done with children; in the 2025 study too, the participants were about eleven years old on average. The NHS writes that molluscum is more common in children. I found much less about adults like me.
Sources also count in different ways: some describe how long a single spot lasts, often just a few weeks or months. The two studies above, by contrast, measure how long it takes until no spots at all are visible.
For me, that difference was the heart of the problem. Individual spots did go away. But because new ones kept appearing, the whole thing dragged on for two years. I write about why that can happen in the article Why does molluscum spread on your own body?
What I take from this
Averages say little about how things will go for you. Nine months, thirteen months, two years: from everything I read, all of these happen. For me, that was important to understand: a long course doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong. I wish I had known that at the start.
For me, nothing was visible any more after about two years. Was it coincidence? I don’t know. If it takes longer than you hoped, or if the way it drags on is getting you down, a dermatologist is the right person to talk to.