Hi,
I was just wondering if someone could help answer a couple of questions. My name is Brittany and I am 27 years old. I do not have melanoma, but am afraid I put myself at high risk of getting it. I have light eyes, dark brown hair and lots of freckles and like an idiot, always wanted to be tan so from the time I was about 16 or 17 until I was 25 I went to tanning beds once, if not more times a week all year round and layed out at the pool in the summer. I know a lot of people do this, but I feel so stupid because with my skin type, I am afraid I may have really damaged my skin. For the past two years I have put sun screen on everyday, even in the winter and have not stepped foot into a tanning bed and will never again. I just went to the dermotologist and he removed an irregular mole on my back that luckily turned out to be nothing. He told me I should come in once a year. I want to be good about doing skin checks on myself during the year so my question is, when looking for melanoma, what am I looking for? I have tons of moles all over and a lot that look dark brown or black but what kind of change in a mole am I looking for? A subtle change or an obvious change? How quickly does a melanoma change? About how long do you have to catch a mole changing and get it removed in time to save yourself from it spreading? I am just so confused. My derm showed me a poster and said most melanoma's look something like his poster but not all of them do. I am afraid even if I do skin checks I will miss something because I don't really know what I am looking for, and I have so many moles and freckles too that make it hard to remember if any moles are new ones or have changed. Sorry this message is so long but can someone give me any idea of what I am looking for? And am I at huge risk of getting melanoma? I don't even have it but I am scared I could get it.