New blog about Watch out for melanoma during pregnancy
Skin cancer is probably the last thing on your mind if you’re preparing to have a baby, but keeping an eye out for unusual skin changes could be lifesaving for you and your child.
It’s common to develop harmless dark splotches on your skin and a dark line down your belly during pregnancy. But some skin changes – particularly changes to moles on your body – can be a sign of something more sinister.
Melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, can spread quickly if left undetected and untreated, even over just a few months of pregnancy. So while most skin changes when you’re pregnant are not a cause for alarm, it’s important to know when a change warrants a checkup with your doctor or dermatologist.
“If melanoma gets deep enough that it spreads by invading a blood vessel and the melanoma cells can travel throughout the body they also can travel across the placenta and affect the baby,” says Dr. Janet Prystowsky, a board certified dermatologist in New York City. “There have been instances where the mother developed melanoma and shortly after the child was born the mother died and then, even though the baby looked healthy, the baby had metastatic melanoma also.”
To avoid such a devastating scenario, Dr. Prytowsky recommends you see a dermatologist before getting pregnant if you’re at high risk for melanoma. Risk factors include a history of bad sunburns, a family history of melanoma, or a past incidence of melanoma. People with a lot of irregular looking moles are also at high risk, she says.
Whether you’re at high risk or not, look out for unusual changes to moles on your body, Dr. Prytowsky says. Changes to a mole that warrant a checkup include:
• Asymmetry: A mole that’s lopsided or has a strange shape, such as a flame pattern veering off to the side.
• Border irregularity: If the mole’s borders are blurred, or jagged like the coast of Maine.
• Color irregularity: Multiple colors such as blue, green, brown and black inside the same mole.
• Diameter: A mole that’s bigger than the eraser on a pencil, about 6 millimeters.
• Evolving: If the mole experiences any other strange changes such as itchiness, bleeding, or a change in color.
Caught early, melanoma can be safely removed, even during pregnancy, Dr. Prytowsky says.
Meanwhile, you can decrease your chances of developing skin cancer by following basic skincare precautions. Prytowsky advises avoiding tanning salons, using sunscreen while outdoors (she recommends applying mineral sunscreens while pregnant that contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide), wearing a hat, and avoiding exposure to harsh sun in the middle of the day.
Images by iStock.
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