Mind those moles
Cecile Meier has noticed slip, slop, slap and wrap reminders are often ignored – mainly by men.
Why are men so blase when it comes to sun exposure? I’ve noticed women often remind their male partners and adult sons to slip, slop, slap and wrap – and their reminders are often met with shrugs or eye rolls.
No-one likes being told what to do but New Zealand has the highest melanoma incidence rate in the world, with two in three New Zealanders developing a skin cancer in their lifetime.
A 2012 survey found that
92 per cent of Kiwi men step out most days without sunblock and more than two-thirds of them had not had their skin checked in the past five years.
It’s time men took responsibility for their sun safety.
Unfortunately, my husband is no exception and has a casual approach to sunscreen – he might put some on if he remembers it but his fair skin regularly gets burnt on the back of his neck and shoulders.
In the past couple of years, as he is getting closer to the age of
40, I have noticed he is becoming more cautious and has started checking his moles regularly.
But still, I was worried so took him along for a skin inspection at Molecheck.
Skin checks are expensive – $265 for a full-body assessment, and, if required, immediate treatment of any pre-cancerous lesions – so I know many people who might be worried about their skin are putting it off.
Australia subsidises skin checks but our public health system does not fund skin cancer screenings because of a lack of consensus about their effectiveness and a shortage of dermatologists.
Instead, district health boards have been training GPs in dermoscopy – assessing moles through a strong magnifying glass and subsidising them to remove at-risk moles.
So, if you are worried about your skin, your GP is the first port of call, and some practices are able to remove potential skin cancers.
But if you are high risk and can afford it, getting checked by a dermatologist (skin specialists) can be the best option.
My husband and I did our check together with Dr Nicki Hartland. Molecheck describes its staff as ‘‘skin cancer doctors’’, a term that tends to be used by GPs who have done extra training in dermoscopy rather than dermatologists.
Hartland confirmed that most men are too blase about sun safety. ‘‘We don’t see enough men – especially older men.’’
Hartland cuts off about 600 lesions every year, about half of which are skin cancers, including a small number of melanoma.
She first gets me to take my shirt off and checks my face, neck and upper body with a dermatoscope (a hand-held magnifying glass). She knows what she is doing so it goes fast.
After about 10 minutes, I take my pants off and she checks my legs and feet – it’s rare but you can get melanoma on the sole of your foot and other areas that are not exposed to the sun, she says.
The whole check takes about 20 minutes and feels comfortable and thorough. Hartland says I am low risk with my olive skin and having grown up in Europe, and my husband is average risk with his fair Kiwi skin.
But everybody can get skin cancer, and it usually starts with new moles rather than old ones, she says.
‘‘New moles will come and go until age 50 and that’s OK but getting a new one is pretty suspicious after that.’’
So checking for new moles and ‘‘ugly ducklings’’ – moles that look different from what’s on the rest of your body – is key, she says.
Dermatologist Victoria ScottLang says for people at high risk of skin cancer, it is worth having a full body skin check, ideally by a dermatologist or a GP who has qualifications in dermoscopy and skin cancer.
A skin check should always include the use of a dermatoscope, which requires training to use, she says.
‘‘If the doctor doing your skin check does not have one of these then it is not a complete skin check and you need to ask them why they are not using one.’’
‘‘Mole-mapping’’ is a term describing the addition of a camera to the skin check. It basically means taking photos through the dermatoscope. Some clinics offer a service where you do not see a doctor in person, but the photographs are sent to a doctor remotely to assess the photographs.