HELP! I think I’ve got skin cancer!

[LightsOutAgain]

Hi everyone. I’m so frightened. I had an itch on a mole on the back of my thigh. I’ve just gone to check it over and a lump seems to have formed underneath it. It’s a reasonable sized lump. The actual mole looks the same, but obviously I’m petrified about this lump.

I’m a 33 year old female. I currently have Covid so wont be able to see the doctor until Tuesday. Will complete an econsult now.

Is there any way this could be nothing to worry about? I’m so frightened.

I understand you are worried, but the vast majority of these are benign.

Definitely get it checked, but don’t panic if you can help it.

Could be an ingrown hair? Seeing as the mole colour hasn’t changed.

(Caveat: not a skin expert , though quite experienced in random ingrown hairs. And you are getting specialist help which is the most important thing of course).

Hi - the vast majority of these types of thing are not cancer. Even those that go for expert opinions are not cancerous so try not to resign yourself to immediately thinking cancer.
Have you tried photographing it? If you can, do, and compare them, keep the photographs.
Main thing is to see your doctor as soon as you can. Make an online appointment if you can do whilst you're sick.
Good luck but just remember it's probably nothing to worry about

^^ often not cancerous

My brother and I have both had scares with moles but neither were cancer. My brother had to get a biopsy and they decided to remove the mole at the same time as they were pretty sure it was cancer. Turned out to be nothing. You are right to get it checked ASAP but please don’t worry.

Thanks for the replies.

It’s not a painful lump. It’s just a solid fixed lump directly under the mole. Definitely not an ingrown hair.

I’ve just taken a picture of it as it’s in a place that’s hard to see. The lump is actually visible to the camera. The mole may have changed slightly, I’m not sure because it’s in a place I can’t really see. I don’t have an option to upload a picture for some reason so can’t share it on here.

Is it a possibility that you scratching it has caused the lump? I had to have a mole removed last year. This has happened to a lot of my friends. If in doubt, they almost always just remove them so that they can do a biopsy and be 100% sure. That's just standard procedure and is a small five min procedure. Moles have all sorts of veins under them, so it could well be that. Just to forewarn you that the department you will be sent to to have it checked out may well have the term cancer in it or a reference to that in the letter. Again that's all fairly standard. And any letters will most probably say 'urgent referral'. Again, this simply means that their are govt mandated targets to deal with any cancer screening within two weeks. Non urgent could be many many months of waiting. All these terms are standard medical ones, with little thought whatsoever to the mental health of patients shit scared and panicking. The Dr will send you for a referral as a matter of course as they do not have the equipment or expertise to look at them properly. If you take a photo you can email it to your surgery and they can get the referral letter done and started as that is what they will do anyway!

Do get it checked but it is much more likely to be nothing to worry about.

Thanks so much for your very helpful post @Hugoslavia. I’ve just completed the econsult and uploaded the pictures and the lump is very obvious. The lump is a perfect circle underneath the mole. The lump is beneath the skin, if that makes sense. Not like a spot or anything like that. When I move the skin on my leg, the lump moves with it, if that makes sense. So it’s very much fixed underneath the mole.

I really think that you'll just get an 'urgent' referral and that they will most probably remove it or part of it. That's the only way that they can be 100% certain. I almost didn't bother having mine looked at as I wasn't overly worried about it, but I couldn't be sure whether it had changed. It looked a bit darker and had a reddish circle around it. I had a vague recollection of injuring the area and felt that it had probably just changed colour due to some scarring. I thought that I'd get it checked out just for reassurance and suddenly had an urgent referral which scared the shit out of me. Thankfully my friend had been through that many times and reassured me that they would probably just whip it out as they need to test part of them anyway, and that, if there is a problem with it, they would have to whip it out anyway, so it just saves them time. Just knowing what to expect helped. Mine was farmed out to a private hospital (of the sparkling mineral water and free biscuits/nice coffee variety) which made the whole thing feel less hospitality. The vast majority of these things are benign, but even if they're not, most can still be very easily treated just by removal alone. X

Also, if you have covid and are feeling under the weather, that will be influencing your anxiety as well and causing you to panic. Have a nice warm shower and a herbal tea and put some relaxing music on or download the calm app and do a short guided meditation. Then watch a nice film .