Moles, moles, moles everywhere - advice from other mole sufferers?

[MarkJames3]

Hi Guys,

So every few months my mole anxiety pipes up, I have been to the doctor so many times to have moles checked out but then a month down the line i find a new mole to get me worried.

I am a person with quite a few moles although I would say 85-90% of them are under 5mm.
I have irregular ones, i have ones with slight colour differences, I have moles within moles it seems, I have raised ones, I have small dark ones. You name it I probably have it.

Doctors reassurance on particular moles always seems to help, but every time I find a new one which seems in my eyes 'dodgy" i feel panic come over and think I need to make another appointment.

I am 29 and since I was about 24 it seems I have new moles appear every week, maybe I am just more vigilant to them these days I don't know.

Just wondering if anyone else has the same situation or problems with new moles and how they overcome it instead of booking a doctors appointment every time you find a new one?

Mark

[Annie0904]

I have quite a few moles and my doctor explained to me the different types and what to look out for.

[MarkJames3]

Do you feel more relaxed now when you find new moles?

[Annie0904]

Yes I do, they don't bother me at all and I am always getting new ones. I do have one that is a bit dodgy and is being monitored for changes but I have had it about 30 years now and it hasn't changed

[MarkJames3]

Do you have ones that would not fit into the catergory of normal but docs have said they are fine?

[Annie0904]

Not really no, other than the one I said about. It is not 'normal' because it is not symmetrical but they have still said it is fine. They are many types of moles, I would ask your doctor to explain them to you for reassurance.

[MarkJames3]

Ah that's my point though haha, many times doctors have told me what to look for, the last doc I saw who was the skin specialist within the surgery and he explained to look for obvious changes in a mole over a short period of time like if it starts going black etc

But my point is I just can't get over the barrier of panicking everytime I find one that doesn't fit into the normal characteristics but is more than likely fine... If that makes sense haha

[Annie0904]

Stop looking for them! Really the chances of them being anything serious especially in this country are VERY low.

[Rosie2]

I am exactly the same. I actually really freaked out when I saw a skin cancer thing on TV as it said risk factors are pale skin, light hair, light eyes (blue), and burning in childhood - I have every single one! I downloaded a molechecker app (yes it exists! LOL) and took a photo of every mole, turns out I literally have about 50 or 60.. probably more. Some are darker, some are lighter, some are tiny, some are a funny shape, some stick out.. I had one biopsied that I was worried about because the shape was really weird and it came back fine. So it's pretty unlikely it would be anything dodgey - especially in the UK. x

[MarkJames3]

I wonder if its one of those things that because we are so fixated on it, we think its a lot more common than it actually is and moles that look funny but completely harmless are dodgy to us.

The funniest thing I find with myself is this... now any mole i see i have to check it throughly and be completely satisfied that its not dodgy... however before all my anxiety started about 6 years ago I went to the doc and casually mentioned I had a few moles, he checked them and found one he said he wanted to take off and at the time it didn't bother me in the slightest, I didn't even ring up for the results (it was all clear I later found out) but it just baffles me how in that situation before my anxiety hit i could be so blazey about it where as now I would be completely freaking out.

The mind is a strange thing!!