Wart and Molluscum Treatment for Adults in South Loop

Common Signs and Symptoms

• Rough, raised bumps, often on the hands or fingers (common warts)
• Thickened bumps on the soles of the feet that can feel tender with pressure (plantar warts)
• Smaller, flatter bumps that can spread in shaved areas (flat warts)
• Bumps around the nails that can affect nail growth (periungual warts)
• Small, firm, pearly or skin-colored bumps with a central dip (molluscum)
• Lesions that spread to nearby skin after scratching, shaving, or picking
• Bumps in the genital area

How Dermatology Can Help

Most warts and molluscum can be diagnosed by a visual exam, sometimes with a dermatoscope. If a bump looks unusual, is changing, or does not respond as expected, your provider may take a small sample for a closer look. We can also coordinate skin cancer screening and mole checks when a growth needs further evaluation.

Many lesions are harmless, and watching and waiting is often reasonable because they may clear on their own. Uncomplicated molluscum usually clears in people with healthy immune systems, often within 6 to 12 months and sometimes over several years. Many warts also resolve without treatment over months to years.

Treatment may help some lesions clear sooner, and fewer active bumps may mean fewer chances to spread.

Your provider weighs the diagnosis and the number, size, and location of the bumps. They also weigh your immune status, other health conditions, pregnancy or breastfeeding, prior treatment, pain tolerance, skin tone, and scarring or pigment risk.

The options below are general dermatology approaches. Your provider will confirm which we offer in-office and which we prescribe or refer.

• In-office removal such as cryotherapy, which freezes the lesion and often needs repeat sessions every few weeks
• Curettage, carefully scraping or removing a lesion after numbing, is an option for selected warts or molluscum when the benefit outweighs the risks. It can cause pain, bleeding, infection, scarring, and light or dark marks. Because uncomplicated molluscum usually clears on its own, curettage is not routinely needed for an otherwise healthy adult. We talk through these risks beforehand
• At-home care your provider may prescribe or recommend, such as salicylic acid for selected non-genital warts. If the practice offers it, berdazimer gel is an FDA-approved at-home prescription for molluscum in patients age 1 and older. It is applied once daily for up to 12 weeks and can cause burning, stinging, redness, itching, dermatitis, swelling, erosion, or discoloration. Evidence in adults is more limited, because the main studies enrolled mostly children. Other prescribed topicals may be off-label with less certain evidence. No over-the-counter medicine is FDA-approved for molluscum, so check with your provider first. Skip over-the-counter wart removers on the face or in the genital area. Check with your provider first if you have diabetes, neuropathy, poor circulation, a weakened immune system, or are unsure what the bump is
• Additional approaches for stubborn warts, considered case by case when first-line options have not worked

All genital and anal lesions should be looked at in person before any treatment. Your provider confirms the diagnosis and answers your questions without judgment.

External lesions may be managed here in dermatology. Lesions inside the vagina, cervix, urethra, or anal canal may need a gynecology, urology, or colorectal referral. A lesion that is atypical, pigmented, firm, fixed, bleeding, ulcerated, worsening, or not responding may need a biopsy.

For confirmed genital warts or genital molluscum, your provider offers or recommends HIV and other STI testing. This follows current guidance and considers your symptoms and exposures. If testing is not done in this office, we can coordinate it with the right clinician.

Until genital lesions have been evaluated, avoid sexual skin-to-skin contact involving the affected area. Once warts or molluscum are confirmed, avoid contact with active lesions until they clear or your provider advises otherwise.

Condoms may lower, but do not eliminate, the risk, because uncovered skin can still pass HPV or molluscum. HPV vaccination can prevent new infections with vaccine-covered HPV types, but does not treat a wart you already have.

When to See a Dermatologist

Consider a visit if a wart or molluscum bump is:

• Painful, bleeding, or ulcerated
• Spreading, growing quickly, or changing
• Unusually pigmented, or firm and fixed in place
• On your face, eyelid, or the genital or anal area
• Near the eye with eye redness, pain, light sensitivity, discharge, or vision change, which needs prompt care
• Not improving with home treatment

It is also worth coming in if you are unsure what a bump is, or if you have diabetes or a weakened immune system.

Molluscum that is unusually numerous, large, widespread, facial, atypical, persistent, or treatment-resistant may prompt a check for an underlying immune problem. That check can include HIV testing when appropriate. A few new, otherwise typical bumps do not by themselves mean the immune system is weakened.

For warts, treatment may be easier when there are fewer and smaller lesions. Earlier evaluation can confirm the diagnosis and give practical steps that may reduce, but cannot eliminate, spread. Many uncomplicated molluscum lesions can be safely watched.