Tina (55) sees with sorrow that the last five years, skin tags have been appearing everywhere on her body. “Under my arms, under my armpits and under my breasts. But also on my stomach and especially in my neck. I think they look so unappetising.”
“Are the skin tags a result of my age or maybe because I’m a bit overweight? And above all: what can I do about it? Because burning the skin tags doesn’t seem like an option to me, since there are dozens of them.”
“Steel warts (also called fibromas, acrochordons or skin tags) are a kind of protrusions of the skin in the shape of a stalk,” explains research doctor in cosmetic dermatology Jetske Ultee. “They are very common: half of adults have them. They are indeed more common in later life or when overweight. Even if you have type 2 diabetes, you can suffer from it (more). Furthermore, pregnant women can suddenly get skin tags due to hormone levels.”
As with Tina, skin tags mainly occur on the neck, under the armpits and breasts and in the groin, Ultee knows. “Because it is here that the skin has to endure a lot of friction and this can provoke the warts.”
The good news? Skin tags are harmless and sometimes they fall off your skin on their own. Ultee: “If that doesn’t happen, unfortunately there is no cream that you can put on that makes them disappear. Although apple cider vinegar is often tipped, there is no convincing scientific evidence that this remedy helps.”
Flip or freeze
If Tina wants to get rid of her skin tags, Ultee advises her to go to her doctor, skin therapist or dermatologist to have them removed (relatively easily and quickly). “They can cut the warts away with scissors. They can also freeze the skin warts with cryotherapy, just as they do with ‘normal’ warts. skin tags be cut away or indeed burned away.”
Whether the skin tags stay away for a long time after this, mainly depends on the cause. “If you have the idea that they are the result of your excess weight, then it naturally helps to lose weight. Then there is a good chance that you will suffer less from the warts afterwards. But in other cases it can unfortunately happen that after removing it again pretty soon new ones come.”
Rubriek: Asking for a friend
In this weekly column Asking for a friend we submit reader questions about health to one of our experts. Do you also have a pressing health question for a general practitioner, obstetrician, dietician, psychologist or other health expert? Mail it to [email protected] and maybe you’ll see the answer appear here soon.