How To Do A Skin Exam

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

21 Apr 2007 10:06 AM

Do you know how often you're supposed to do a full-body skin check?

Once a month.

Do you know how many women in America actually DO a monthly full-body skin check?

Less than a quarter. That's maybe one in four women actually doing a monthly skin exam.

If you think a skin exam is complicated or difficult, you're thinking wrong. A skin exam is a quick and easy (and mostly visual) check -- and surely you can spare ten minutes a month to prevent skin cancer!

1. Get naked. Can't look at your skin with your clothes on, unless you're Superman.
2. Check pre-existing moles, and keep your ABCDEs in mind. That's Asymmetry, Border irregularity, Color that is uneven, Diameter bigger than six millimeters, and Evolution -- any change in the mole. If you catch any of the ABCDEs, be sure to call your doctor.
3. Look for new moles, and think about those ABCDEs. Again, if you see the ABCDEs in action, talk to your doctor or dermatologist.
4. Examine every inch of your body. Use a mirror for your back, or ask your spouse or a friend for help. Be especially vigilant with skin that's more frequently exposed to the sun -- face, hands, neck, and shoulders. Girls, pay special attention to your legs, because that's the most common site for melanoma in women.
5. Find anything suspicious? Call your doctor for a check-up.

Be sure to check your groin area for dark bumps or mottled spots. Skin cancer in the genital area is often missed. And since it's frequently unnoticed, it's frequently deadly.

Skin cancer is on my mind because my grandmother just had three different cancerous spots removed. Melanoma on her face, and two instances of squamous cell cancer on her hands. This is her second run-in with squamous cell cancer -- the first time, the cancer was big enough that she needed a skin graft to cover up the spot. This time around, we caught them more quickly and no graft was necessary.

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Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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