Colour of your melanoma

They can be any color. My husband’s was a brown/light gray. Is there anyway to expedite the specialist referral — if your primary doctor says he’s concerned, maybe?

Melanoma can be any colour including skin colour and can resemble a pimple and not a mole at all. Although you need a referral, there are always things you can do to speed up the process. I would call few dermatologists and see where you can get in sooner. Also, ask to be put on a waiting list/short notice list. By calling around, I got my friend an appointment with the cardiologist in one month instead of six. Recently my daughter needed to see a specialist and they booked her appointment for Oct. Once she said the issues she was having they made an appointment to see her in a week.
Best of luck from one Canadian to another.
Melanie

Any changes in a mole are definitely worth getting checked out. It may not be anything to worry about but it is better to be safe than sorry. I do not know much about the Canadian health care system but I would definitely push to be seen much sooner than a year out.

The melanoma spot I had looked like an ant bite. It was considered amelanotic. Don’t wait. A year is definitely too long to wait.

You are doing the right thing by getting it checked on by a dermatologist. As many others have said here, if you are concerned about it, advocate for a biopsy.

My melanoma was flesh/rose colored, and because of this I wasn’t as concerned as I should have been for over a year, and it spread (luckily only on the surface, and not too deep). Look up the term “amelanotic melanoma”, which means a melanoma tumor without the melanin pigmentation. Melanoma is a cancer that arises from the melanocyte of our skin. Tumors aren’t always darkened or discolored to the point where they are noticed easily. Mine was raised above the surface, irregularly shaped, and started to itch. That’s why I went to the derm and asked for it to be checked. The derm thought it was likely just a seborrheic keratosis (a non-cancerous growth), but we decided to biopsy just to make certain….

It’s far better to go get things checked out. You’re doing the right thing. Hope you are able to get into a specialist soon.

Hahaha, i had to laugh, we certainly must be white folks here to say “My Melanoma was “skin color” haha…i see humor in EVERYTHING!!
I myself have had only one Melanoma that started as a Mole and that was my very 1st Primary back in 2008, it started out light brown, then hued to darker shades of brownish black then it grew Roots and began to grow like a Tree!!!.. like the size of a pencil erasser (a brand new one) “Wart” like, all within a few months of being totaly flat….all the rest of my Melanoma have been under my skin (in various organs as well) with no Mole…some folks have melanomas like a Neopolitan hue, pinkish brown and white, now im being funny…i better go…

Hi OP, as others have said, melanoma can be of ANY color, a single color, or any combination of multiple colors. Including pink, red, tan/brown, black, and even bluish-grey. Honestly, what you describe sounds concerning to me (I am young too, only 36, but melanoma knows no age cut off). It sounds reasonable to have it checked ASAP. I think that a wait of a few weeks is fine, but not let it stretch to a year or anywhere close to that. Do you maybe have an option to be seen sooner if you pay out of pocket? Or if seeing a dermatologist is such an issue, perhaps your PCP can remove it and send for a biopsy? In the US, many PCPs would do that for their patients. In any case, I wish you the best, please get to see someone soon and keep us posted!