Funny patch of skin

[glasscompletelybroken]

on my leg - half way down the front of my shin. Just want some opinions really as to whether to go to doctors or not.

A couple of yesrs ago I had an itchy leg problem - to the point that I was making them bleed scratching. I went to the doctors a few times and generally felt as though I was wasting their time so don't want to feel like that again. At the time I had a small - size of a 10 pence piece - red patch of skin on my shin. This has been steadily growing ever since although the itching did stop after a couple of months. It is now an oval shape about 3.5 inches long and 1.5 wide. It's not a dark red and is a consistent colour and not weeping or bumpy or anything. I looked up skin cancer and the pictures looked awful and I thought my leg was obviously fine in comparison.

But I just don't know what it is or how much bigger it will get. What d'you think?

I think go and ask them for a referral to a dermatologist. A GP is unlikely to know what it is and even a derm cannot diagnose cancer from just looking...they may do a biopsy to be sure.

It could be any number of benign weirdy things but you're not wasting anyone's time. (my friend had something similar and it was cancer...be pushy!)

Sorry, that sounds awful - what I mean is, though it's really unlikely to be a risk to your health, you'll feel better if you rule it out!

Thanks JenniferEight - I don't generally go to the doctors much at all but in the last couple of years seem to have been more and I did feel like they thought I was wasting their time over the itchy leg thing.

I should probably go - I was reassured for a while after looking at the pictures on the internet as they all looked so awful and mine doesn't but I guess it wouldn't hurt to get it looked at. Was your friends just a red patch then?

Push to see a dermatologist. It could be so many things.

Yes just a small slightly raised patch on her scalp. It didn't itch or anything, but it grew slowly. The doctors misdiagnosed it for about a year.

They kept thinking it was a fungal infection or something. Basically cancer can prsent in various ways and a lot of docs have never even seen the rarer types iyswim. So they look to the obvious first.

Did they ever sort out the other issue, I mean the itching thing? Can you see a different doc if you feel they're impatient with you?

I think it just went on it's own to be honest. I had all sorts of anti-histamines and steroid creams but nothing really worked. In the end it just went after about 4 months. I saw most of the doctors in the practice during that time - is a small practice and you just see whoever is doing surgery.

well, I think you should go and see someone. You are within your rights to ask for (or even insist on) a referral to dermatology.

Basically anything on your skin that's growing, even slowly, needs to be investigated unless it's clearly a wart but these usually fall off by themselves within a few months.

If the GP refuses to refer you, see another. Don't give up till you've been to see a skin specialist. I mean chances are it's nothing untoward but IF it's nasty, you won't want to leave it any longer. So best to be on the safe side.