I do not have melanoma or at least I think I do not have melanoma. I spent most of my childhood in the sun with no sunscreen. I was a lifeguard, golfer, surfer, cross country runner… so most of my life was outdoors. I can remember a few bad burns but for the most part I would tan and tan easily. No one in my family has ever had melanoma.
I am 36 years old and have always had alot of moles. I may literally have 150-200 on my body and this has recently started to bother me. Most of my moles are smaller than a penicl eraser. I have had 4 moles removed in my life. One turned out to be a sebhoric keratosis, the other a mildly dysplastic nevus and the other was a spitz nevus and the other was completly normal.
I had one dermatologist tell me my risk for melanoma is no higher than anyone else and wanted to see me every year.
I had another dermatologist tell me I had a slightly higher risk because of all my moles and wanted to see me every year but once my mole came back as a spitz nevus he has be comming back every three months.
My question is am I at a greater risk for melanoma becaus of all of my moles? Also almost none of my moles are perfect circles and none are the same color ( they are all brown but different shades of brown).
Does this mean they are dysplastic nevus ? None of my derms brought that up but when I look at them. For the most part I am more concerned than my dermatologists.
With so many moles would it be benificial for me to go to a pigmented lesion specialist ? I have the university of Penn close by ?
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