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Mole biopsy, does melanoma seem likely? Please help

Flowerpower93
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Hi everyone. I am a 27 year old female with a fairly decent number of moles all over my body, I have a mixed ethnic background of different heritages but my skin tone is a light olive on my face in winter and my body a olive shade, in summer my body goes a golden shade. I have in the past sunbathed quite a lot and also used sunbeds maybe around 50-60 times in my life. I had an urgent appointment refferal with a hospital dermatologist after I sent my local gp practice a photo of an off looking mole on my thigh. It was a bit lumpy like three different moles combined if that makes sense and each segment different shades( I've attached a photo). From my vague memory it used to look somewhat normal many years ago (like 10 years ago) and then has very slowly started to become really rather odd looking.  I went to the appointment and told the Dermatologist it had seemed to have gotten more uneven and bigger in recent times. She seemed rather concerned by how it looked and brought a second doctor who also looked at it, they both then said a biopsy is recommended for this mole and that I could do this straight after the appointment as they did them there with another nurse or doctor I'm not sure which she was. Then I went to have the biopsy, the female doctor or nurse drew an area about 3cm extra diameter around the mole and injected the local anesthesia, she cut off the mole but distracted me during the procedure  by talking to me about other things, so I wasn't really looking, but it seemed to take around 10-15 minutes. She then closed the wound (again I didn't really want to look) with 6 stitches. I asked her if my mole looked normal and she said no it's an irregular type of mole, it's not a normal one but it could be that this procedure will  be all you will need. I should have really asked her if she thought it was cancer but didn't as everything seemed to happen so quickly, I wasn't expecting a biopsy there and then.

 

The wait will be around 1-2 weeks and I am constantly thinking about it, if anyone could give me any advice on what it's likely to be based on the experience I had I would be super super greatfull.

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    Hi flowerpower93

    It's understandable that this is on your mind. Waiting for results is really awful. 

    Although I can't help with what the results will be, I wanted to share that the procedure sounds very similar to my mole removal last year.  They drew a circle around the mole allowing plenty of room around it. They like to take a little more skin that just the mole just in case it's anything (that's not to say it is).  I had about 6 stitches too and it took around 20 mins. I think it's fairly standard.

    In my case it was a dysplastic mole, a mole that looks like melanoma but is benign.  Because they can look like melanoma they are removed so they can see for certain what it is.  They also prefer to remove dysplastic moles as they can turn cancerous in the future if left in place. 

    I hope yours turns out to be nothing sinister and that you get some answers soon. I know how torturous waiting can be. 

  • Offline in reply to Newmum

    Thank you very much for your message Xx

    The dermatologist used a dermatoscope before the biopsy was decided to also look at all my moles, did they also do that on yours? Sorry I know it's probably a daft question x

  • Offline in reply to Flowerpower93

    Not a daft question at all. Yes they looked at the mole in question with a dermatoscope and they looked at a couple of others that I asked them to look at. 

    They didn't look at them all, however from what I read last year it seems to depend on the Dr / hospital. Some seem to have a look over you and others just look at the mole you were referred for x

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    Hi,

    Newmum has given you good advice from her experience. Most dermatologists will use a dermatoscope but they will only use it to look at moles that look dodgy to the naked eye. The rest of your moles they will just run a critical eye over. 

    There are 3 different types of 'dodgy' mole - those that look dodgy but are benign, those that look dodgy but are dysplastic (atypical) like Newmum had. These moles usually occur on people that have a lot of moles. They have the ability to turn cancerous if left in situ so any dodgy mole will be removed for safety as only a biopsy can 100% diagnose melanoma. The third type is melanoma. Depending on the depth of the melanoma depends on if you've caught it early stage, in which case you have a 95% chance of never having a further problem.

    The consultant wouldn't give you any indication as to what they thought it was because they can often be wrong. If they said it looks like melanoma & it turned out to be benign they would have caused you a lot of worry. If they said they thought it was ok & it turned out to be melanoma it would cause you a great shock when you got the results. So they sit on the fence and let the science make the diagnosis.

    75% of dermatology referrals receive a clean bill of health so the odds are on your side. Good luck and please let us know how you get on,

    Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient)

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    Hope you're okay OP. Did you hear about your results? X

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