Hi All. I am awaiting a biopsy report, and have questions.
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Hi all, this is a great forum. I cant find answers to my questions on the internet. I had a “Dysplastic Nevus mole” Biopsy shave on Monday( off my stomach). I am a 51 year old male.The mole I had biopsied I have had for a good 4 years. I noticed it possibly as a new mole about 4 years ago. My question is how long can you actually have a mole that is melanoma before you actually have any secondary symptoms? Here is what I know regarding my situation.
1. Mole is about the size of a pencil and half erase.
2. The Dermatologist said there is a 50 percent chance this mole is melanoma( yikes).
3. I have had this mole for almost I am guessing 4 years, I believe it was a new mole.
4. When it first appeared I thought it was strange looking and darker than my other moles.
My question is, if this is a cancerous melanoma, and I have had it for 4 years, wouldn’t I have had some secondary symptoms by now? I am healthy and have checked myself thoroughly for lymph nodes under arms and groin, no lumps…
How long can you actually have a melanoma mole and it stays at stage one or less??
Thank You So much! They said it would take 2 weeks for the results..
cohanja wrote:Hi,
Only pathology can determine if something is melanoma or not.
um ya obviously, but your response doesn’t address any of my my questions, so why bother?
I was addressing the comment: “The Dermatologist said there is a 50 percent chance this mole is melanoma( yikes).”
I think there was a lack of replies because no one can tell you if a mole is melanoma or not until it is under a microscope and a dermatopathologist is looking at it. Change is the indicator of what might be melanoma, so if you had it 4 years and it grew larger, or changed shape, then it might be melanoma. Melanoma takes a long time to spread normally, so no, you would not be facing any obvious symptoms, but again that is second guessing. The painful part is waiting for the answer to the biopsy results. Be sure to ask us about the results when you get them and we can help you further. Yes, there are a lot of lurkers here too!! My mole that turned out to be melanoma had been around for 3-4 years at least based on looking back at pictures of myself (it was on my neck so visible in many photos). It had changed considerably over at least 2 years. I was melanoma, but it was in situ or stage 0 so therefore had not become invasive. Every person is different though and every mole/melanoma is different.
As others have mentioned, the only way to know for sure is the biopsy and yes, waiting is definitely the hard part.
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