Well there’s no doubt about it, these things are aggravating, ugly, and embarrassing if they are in a place people can see. But just what is a skin tag and what do you need to do about them? Will they go away on their own or what?

Don’t worry, this is a problem many people deal with. First, a skin tag is very simply a small noncancerous (benign) growth. Normally you will find hem to be flesh-colored growths of skin which are attached by a very narrow piece of skin called a stalk. Sometimes the color will vary a bit, as will the texture and size. It is very rare that they are malignant so, aside from the cosmetic issue, they are not anything to be very concerned about.

You will usually find these tags located on the face, eyelid, underarm area, or in places where your skin rubs together such as under the breasts or in the groin area. These locations can cause the tags to be painful because of the skin rubbing together or rubbing or snagging on clothes.

Middle age is a very popular time to find these benign growths popping up. There is no real known cause, and they don’t generally go away on their own.

Although these growths are for the most part considered quite harmless, many people choose to have them removed anyway due to the fact that they simply are not very appealing to look at. Sometimes they are painful too, depending on the area where they are located. If you are not bothered by your skin tag, it’s fine to just leave it be. However, a dermatologist can easily freeze them or snip them off if you would like to have them removed.

What is a skin tag?

Your dermatologist may refer to them as acrochordons, papillomas, fibroepithelial polyps, filoform, or pedunculated benign moles, but most people refer to these bothersome blights as skin tags.

They are very simply an overgrowth or hyperplasia of the epidermis or outside layer of the skin. They often occur as you grow older and are usually most prominent in middle age. Nothing has been proven to cause them but some conditions, such as being overweight, are thought to encourage their growth. Insulin fluctuations are also thought to be one of the possible causes as well as high levels of growth factors such as during pregnancy.

Skin tags normally occur most often in the eyelid area, the upper chest, and the groin, although they may actually pop up pretty much anywhere you have skin, so that leaves a lot of real estate open.

There is no known prevention per se but what you can do is watch for them and when they start to appear (they appear first as a tiny bump), and then as soon as you can see a tag is forming with a small stalk that attaches it to the skin, snip it off with fingernail clippers or small scissors. It’s best to do this early because they larger you allow them to grow, the more painful the excision of them will be.

If you wait too long you may have to have them removed at an office visit to your dermatologist, which will of course cost you money and, quite simply, is just a bother. But if you do have them taken off they will normally either freeze them off or excise them. It’s fairly painless so not much to worry about.

So although skin tag causes can vary, they are not dangerous and not usually anything to be too worried about other than the cosmetic issues.