Mole Removal- How to Know When to Get A Mole Removed

The importance of knowing when to get a mole removed – all the signs to look out for!

Most people have common moles; in fact you’ve probably never met anyone who hasn’t. And common moles aren’t dangerous, but some moles do turn into melanoma, so how do you spot those?

It’s actually not rocket science to spot most moles that could potentially be melanoma and therefore need to be checked by a doctor. Normal moles are in most cases smaller than 5 millimeters wide, even in color with a smooth surface and have a round, or oval shape with a distinctive edge. It is time to check a mole when you a) have more than 50 in total b) it appears to be an atypical or dysplastic nevus, which is usually larger in size with an uneven surface and no distinctive color (it can be a mixture of different colors such as brown, gray, blue, or black), or border irregularity with notching (or has any of those traits, just not necessarily combined).

The signs to look out for are:

• Having very many moles, can increase the chances of one being malignant since it can be difficult to keep track of how the growths change from time to time.
• One of your moles appearing to be a dysplastic nevus meaning it’s either larger than 6mm, the color of it is a mixture of many different colors, it has no distinctive border, and/or has an uneven surface. Another way of looking at it is if you have 40 or 50 moles on your body and one looks distinctly different from all the rest, then it might be best to do a biopsy of the mole to check for sure.  Sometimes moles as small as 1 mm can have variable color and atypical features when examined microscopically since small size alone does not mean that a mole cannot be harmful
• A mole should also most definitively get checked if it gets bigger, or smaller, starts bleeding, or oozing, changes in shape, size, surface texture, or color, becomes hard, or feels lumpy, or starts to itch. These are symptoms that it may be cancerous. If the mole doubles in size in a 6 month period then it can be advisable to remove it.
• While most abnormal moles develop on sun exposed areas, individuals with darker pigmented skin are prone to develop melanomas on the palms and soles instead of the areas usually associated with sun exposure.  So, pigmented lesions in these areas would be monitored closely or removed if any abnormal features appear.

If you do have a mole removed, even for aesthetic reasons, you should always send it to a lab to check that it is not malignant, because if it is you will want to have a larger area of skin around it removed.

These are the key points in looking at whether you want to have a mole removed, or not. It’s, as you can see very simple and it’s always better to be safe than sorry – if you have a lot of moles, or a lot of dysplastic nevus ones you should definitively go through your moles yourself once a month and go to a healthcare professional, such as a dermatologist, if you detect any changes, or worrying symptoms. Having a mole removed is easy and there’s therefore no reason not to do it!

One other key point, 70% of abnormal moles are detected by family members rather than health care professionals, so if someone in your family thinks a mole looks funny or needs to be checked then it is a good idea to follow their advice.