While shaving last week, I accidentally cut the head off of a large skin tag that I didn’t know was on the back of my thigh. Copious bleeding resulted.
I have a fair number of these things, some of which are quite large (one is pencil eraser sized) and ugly. I’m tempted to finally make some move to have them snipped off.
Do you get skin tags?
Do you have them removed? (Or do it yourself? I tried the string method once - ouch!)
If you have them removed, who do you go to (PCP, dermatologist, etc.) and how much does it cost?
I have decent sized one on my left armpit, a couple of very tiny ones on my neck, and a tiny one on my eyelid which is skin colored but looks like a little pimple to me. I hate them and I hope my body doesn’t sprout any more of them.
I work in a dermatologist’s office (just in case you didn’t know that yet) and here’s the deal with skin tags, or what I like to refer to as “salad toppings”:
We snip them off with sterile scissors, we won’t bill your insurance because many of them don’t pay for them because they see them as cosmetic, even when they’re irritated, the price is $85 for 1-15 and $35 for each additional 10. We don’t freeze skin tags because freezing only works on things that are growing from the outer layer of the skin so freezing doesn’t work on them, that I know of. We stop the bleeding with a styptic such as drysol or Monsel’s solution (ferrous sulfate). For really huge ones, the doc numbs them with lidocaine and cauterizes. He doesn’t numb the small ones because that hurts more than just snipping them off.
After having one grow large enough to need a doctor’s removal, I just pull 'em off myself while they’re still tiny. It seems to be working just fine - I yank on them and mess 'em up until they scab, then I yank the scab off. If you get them while small, it hardly hurts at all. I don’t like to leave them on - I just don’t like them, and I don’t trust them. Skin is supposed to be more or less smooth.
Heh. I don’t work in any sort of doctor’s office, and I’m prone to skin tags. I clean a pair of cuticle scissors with alcohol, grab the tag with a pair of tweezers, pull it out, and snip with the scissors, if I can reach the tag at all. I’ve never had a problem when I use this method.
I’ve also had skin tags, warts, and various Lumps removed in a doctor’s office. If given a choice, I’ll have the doctor use a laser or electric needle rather than having something frozen. Freezing hurts less, initially, but the laser or needle doesn’t hurt after the procedure.
I’ve had things removed by a PCP and a physician’s assistant (PA). The PA was a great practioner, and he had a great personality and wonderful fine motor control.
I have one in my arm pit region. It has gotten bigger over the last couple of years and irritates me. I havent had it removed because I hate going to the doctor but if I did it would be removed free of charge because my medical care is covered by the NHS. Im not sure how much it would cost privately - not much I would think. I’ve heard of people wrapping fishing wiree around it tightly until it falls off - I do NOT recommend this method!
My sister had one, on her shoulder, that resembled a nuclear-bomb mushroom cloud. Its stem was very, very thin. My sister just tied it with a piece of string, tighter each day, till it ‘choked and died’ and fell.
I have a little teeny tiny one right under my eye. I hate it - I feel it every time I rub my eye. Just looks like a freckle, though; I am not a monster!
I have one on my neck right where the seat belt rubs. It sometimes gets quite painful. My doc was reluctant to cut it off the last time I brought it up (but that was several docs ago.)
I had a couple like that and they itched like hell. I had them removed; my dermatologist referred me to a pediatric ophthalmologist. No idea why pediatric, maybe just he was good at it.
I had quite a few and I went to a cosmetic dermatologist when I used to live in DC. I paid a pretty penny for their removal (a few hundred dollars) but they were on my face and neck and I wanted them removed by someone who was very, very good. She numbed my skin and used a laser to remove them.
I had one on my breast that my surgeon must have nicked off while he was doing my lumpectomy. Another way to get rid of them is to tie a piece of thread around the base of the skin tag, near the skin. After a couple of days, it should fall off because the blood supply is cut off. I’ve gotten rid of one near my eye (it was the weekend, and I wasn’t going anywhere) and my SIL got rid of one near her shoulder using this method.
I admit to not knowing the gender of every poster in this thread, but it seems like most are female. Are skin tags more common in women, or is it just that men don’t care enough to worry about them?
