HalfwayThere

Hi there -- Dorri is right that you should be very careful about having them cut off. Of course, if skin cancer is a concern, you won't have much choice, but if it's only for cosmetic reasons, hard as it seems right now, you may be even more unhappy with your face after having them removed.

I have a light to medium olive (1/2 Native American Indian) olive complexion, and as *many* people with olive skin and brown eyes (according to my dermatologist), I have a tendency to scar easily. I also have a tendency toward keloids.

I had several moles removed ten years ago - two rather large ones on my stomach and back, and a few smaller ones on my face. As others have said elsewhere on the board, in order to completely remove a mole, it is necessary to cut the root out, so thorough removal involves at least some cutting of the skin -- the larger the mole, the more cutting.

So ten years later, I still have an ugly brown 2" long scar on my stomach - much larger and uglier than the mole was! The mole on my neck was about 1/4" in diameter - the keloided scar it left behind is about 1/2" in diameter. The keloid condition eventually subsided after a series of treatments to reduce it, but there is still some raised keloid affect and an ugly brown scar ten years later.

As for my face, since the moles were smaller, there was less cutting and the keloid effect went away, but still, there are ugly brown scars where the moles used to be, and they are larger than the moles were. They have definitely faded over time, but are still visible.

Like you, I have other moles on my face and body I would like to have removed but I'm hesitant to do so after the experience I've had. I have only just discovered these boards a few days ago and I was encouraged to find some postings about various topical products on the market that can be applied to moles and skin tags to remove them. While I can't vouch for the long-term safety of the products, I do wonder about the safety of shrinking the visibility of a mole while the root is still intact underneath and hanging around to possibly cause cancer, but less likely to be checked out since you are less aware of its presence.

I do intend to keep reading the boards and doing other research and I might give one of the products a try. I recall Elcina was one that was mentioned, and I saw a mention of applying castor oil somewhere on the boards as well. I can't recall the names of the other products and unfortunately, even though I saved the links, I have so many links in my favorite places (with weird names) that I can't quickly figure out which ones are for which products to look them up and give you the product names. But maybe someone else will come along and provide that.

Whatever you end up doing, I hope you'll come back here and post the results. I'm interested to know. Good luck!

[This message has been edited by HalfwayThere (edited 03-30-2003).]

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Karen