Types of moles: See the different types of moles with pictures

A mole, known med­ical­ly as melanocyt­ic nae­vi, is a raised spot on your skin made up of skin cells grouped togeth­er instead of indi­vid­u­al­ly. These cells, called melanocytes, pro­duce melanin, which is the colour (pig­ment) in your skin.

There are many dif­fer­ent types of moles on skin, and they come in var­i­ous sizes, shapes, colours and forms. But know­ing which moles are nor­mal (or non-can­cer­ous) and which moles are sus­pi­cious can be tricky.

Below we’ve list­ed some of the most com­mon types of moles with pic­tures to help you under­stand what to look out for.

An atyp­i­cal mole is a type of skin mole that shows abnor­mal symp­toms. These types of moles are also referred to as dys­plas­tic nevi.

Atyp­i­cal moles usu­al­ly have these characteristics:

· Blur­ry or fuzzy borders

· Larg­er than oth­er moles

· Varies in colour

· Both raised and flat areas on the surface

Atyp­i­cal moles that are genet­ic, uneven or larg­er than a quar­ter of an inch can be at risk of melanoma.

Source: Skin​Cancer​.org

Most moles are acquired, which means that they are not present at birth and devel­op as you get old­er. These types of moles can appear in both child­hood and adulthood.

Acquired moles typ­i­cal­ly have:

· Even pigmentation

· Sym­met­ri­cal border

· Small­er size than a pen­cil eraser

Acquired moles are typ­i­cal­ly benign and aren’t at risk of devel­op­ing melanoma. How­ev­er, with age, some may be at risk of turn­ing can­cer­ous. These types of skin moles are usu­al­ly caused by sun exposure.

Source: Wed​erm​.com

Con­gen­i­tal moles are either present at birth or devel­op a few months after birth. Often, these types of moles are con­fused for birthmarks.

Con­gen­i­tal moles can be:

· Var­ied in size

· Round or oval in shape

· Raised

· Light tan, brown or black in colour

· Cov­ered with a hair or hairs

These types of moles are fair­ly com­mon and are gen­er­al­ly not sus­pi­cious. But it’s still impor­tant to mon­i­tor con­gen­i­tal moles over time and keep an eye out for any changes as they may be at risk of devel­op­ing into melanoma lat­er in life.

Source: Amer­i­can Osteo­path­ic Col­lege of Dermatology

When you’re check­ing your own skin, it’s almost impos­si­ble to tell the dif­fer­ence between a junc­tion­al melanocyt­ic nevus and a com­pound nevus. This is why it’s so impor­tant to have your skin checked by a pro­fes­sion­al who can use spe­cialised tools and cam­eras to prop­er­ly iden­ti­fy the dif­fer­ent types of moles on your skin.

A junc­tion­al melanocyt­ic nevus is a type of benign acquired mole that usu­al­ly appears in child­hood. Most junc­tion­al nae­vi will lose pig­men­ta­tion over time as the per­son moves through adulthood.

Junc­tion­al melanocyt­ic nevus typ­i­cal­ly appears:

· Light to dark brown in colour

· Slight­ly elevated

· Cir­cu­lar in shape

· Reg­u­lar borders

· 1 – 10mm in diameter

A com­pound nevus usu­al­ly starts as a flat lesion and becomes raised over time. These types of moles are more com­mon among peo­ple with lighter skin, but can also appear on those with dark­er skin tones.

Com­pound nevus can be recog­nised by:

· Round or oval shape

· Light tan to dark brown in colour

· A cen­tral raised or domed area sur­round­ed by a flat area

· Raised area may have dark­er pig­men­ta­tion than flat area

· Pig­men­ta­tion may be uneven by symmetrical

These types of moles are usu­al­ly con­sid­ered benign and not at risk of devel­op­ing into skin can­cer. But like all skin spots, it’s wise to have these moles checked for any changes or abnormalities.

Source: Ozark​Derm​.com, Web­MD

Intra­der­mal nevus are skin-coloured moles that usu­al­ly have the same lev­el of pig­men­ta­tion as the sur­round­ing skin. Due to their fleshy colour, intra­der­mal nae­vi can often be mis­tak­en for warts.

Intra­der­mal nevus has these characteristics:

· Skin-coloured or sim­i­lar shade to the colour of the sur­round­ing skin

· Small in size, approx. 5mm to 1cm

· Raised, round­ed or dome-shaped

· May have or grow hairs

Intra­der­mal nae­vi can appear spon­ta­neous­ly or devel­op on top of exist­ing moles. They usu­al­ly appear from late child­hood onwards and can devel­op any­time dur­ing adult­hood. These types of moles are com­mon and usu­al­ly benign. How­ev­er, they can resem­ble ear­ly basal cell car­ci­no­ma so it’s impor­tant to have these moles checked by a professional.

Source: Patient​.info

A halo nevus is eas­i­ly recog­nised by the white ring or ​“halo” sur­round­ing the mole. These moles can be caused by sun expo­sure or when your body’s immune sys­tem tries to ​“attack” the mole. This immune response affects the pig­ment in the nor­mal skin around the mole, cre­at­ing a dis­tinct white outline.

Halo nevus are iden­ti­fied by these characteristics:

· Reg­u­lar dark brown, tan or pink mole

· Sur­round­ed by a white patch of skin

Halo nevus are com­mon in chil­dren and young adults, but can appear lat­er in life too. These moles are usu­al­ly benign and not at risk of devel­op­ing into skin can­cer. How­ev­er, in rare cas­es, a halo nevus can be a sign of melanoma else­where on the body. In these cas­es, the halo nevus is often an irreg­u­lar shape or colour.

Source: Health­Line

Almost every­body has at least one mole. Most peo­ple begin grow­ing moles dur­ing child­hood and some may even have moles present at birth. But oth­er peo­ple may not start devel­op­ing moles until lat­er in adulthood.

While all peo­ple will dif­fer on the num­ber of moles they have, peo­ple with fair skin typ­i­cal­ly have more moles since their skin has less melanin. Aus­tralian chil­dren, by 15 years old, have around 50 moles on aver­age, accord­ing to The Aus­tralasian Col­lege of Dermatology.

There are var­i­ous rea­sons why dif­fer­ent types of moles appear on the skin. It can be due to genet­ics, too much sun expo­sure or fluc­tu­a­tions in your hor­mone lev­els. Let’s explore each of these fac­tors below.

Genet­ics

Your genes play a role in your mole growth. Take a look around at your fam­i­ly: if your par­ents and oth­er rel­a­tives have moles on their skin, you’ll like­ly have moles too. If you notice any new moles appear­ing on your body as an adult, it’s more like­ly due to your genet­ics. How­ev­er, if many of your moles are caused by genet­ics, it can put you at a high­er risk of devel­op­ing melanoma. So, be sure to book your­self in for a pro­fes­sion­al skin check — and urge your fam­i­ly mem­bers to do so too!

Sun expo­sure

Expo­sure to the sun is the main rea­son why many moles grow. When you get too much sun expo­sure, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing your infan­cy or teen years, it increas­es the like­li­hood that your moles will grow in size or that you will devel­op new moles. The best way to pre­vent moles from sun expo­sure is to be sun smart. When­ev­er you’re out­doors, make sure you pro­tect your skin with sun­screen (SPF of 30 or high­er) and sun pro­tec­tive cloth­ing, includ­ing UPF sun hats and sunglasses.

Hor­mones

Dur­ing the teen years, preg­nan­cy and menopause, hor­mon­al changes in the body can cause new moles to grow and exist­ing moles to devel­op or become dark­er. New areas of pig­men­ta­tion may also appear. While hor­mon­al mole changes are usu­al­ly harm­less, it’s still very impor­tant to flag them with your doc­tor or book in for a skin check.

For the major­i­ty of peo­ple who have them, moles are sim­ply harm­less brown spots on their body and don’t cause any alarm. But moles can change and with any change comes a small risk that they will devel­op into melanoma.

While you may be able to com­pare your moles with some of the types of moles list­ed above, this arti­cle is not a diag­nos­tic tool and does not replace the advice of a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al. Ultimately, the only way to determine whether your moles are harmless or need further investigation is to book in for a professional skin check at a specialised skin cancer clinic.