What are the Melanoma signs?

I recommend to my patients and their families and their children to do a self exam once a month and to get their skin checked one a year. Now, when you’re looking at your moles, what are you looking for? I tell my patients to look for change, change in size, change in shape, change in color, or symptoms: bleeding, rough, sore. Your moles should stay the same month by month, year by year with only very slight changes as you grow older. Melanoma usually presents as an abrupt change in an existing mole, often is dark, it’s irregular and it has an irregular border or color or mickey mouse ears or bizarre shapes and when you look once a month and get your skin in check once a year. These are the changes that we’re focusing on