Skin Tags in Pregnancy, and What Not to Do About Them

Somewhere around the second trimester, people start noticing small soft growths where there were none. On the neck. Under the bra line. In the armpit. In folds that were not folds six months ago.

The short version is that new skin tags in pregnancy are common, almost always harmless, and almost always better left alone until afterwards. The part worth reading carefully is not the removal. It is what people try at home, because that is where this goes wrong.

Why they appear now

Two things are happening at the same time.

Your body is changing shape quickly, which means skin is now rubbing against skin in places where it did not before. Friction is where skin tags appear, which is why the list of common sites reads like a list of places where two surfaces meet: neck, armpits, under the breasts, along the bra line, groin, and under the belly later on.

Pregnancy also increases benign skin growths generally. The precise mechanism is not fully settled in the literature, and we would rather say that than give you a confident explanation that goes beyond what is known. What is clear is the pattern: several appearing over a few months, in friction sites, in the second half of pregnancy, is the ordinary version of this.

What they are, and what they are not

A skin tag is a small, soft, skin-coloured growth, usually hanging from a narrow stalk, that moves when you move it. It is benign. It is not contagious, it is not a sign that something is wrong, and it has nothing to do with how you are looking after your skin.

What it is not is anything pigmented. A brown or black spot is a different conversation, and so is anything that is changing, growing, bleeding unprovoked, or simply does not look like the others nearby. Those should be looked at by your family doctor or a dermatologist. Our own page on moles and lesion assessment sets out why we refer those rather than remove them, and that position does not change because somebody is pregnant.

If you want the difference between a skin tag and the other common small bump, skin tags and milia covers it.

What not to do, which is the real subject

Every method below is one we have seen the aftermath of.

Do not tie it off with thread or a kit. The idea is to cut off the blood supply so the tag dies. What actually happens often enough to matter is that it half works: the tissue dies slowly, the base stays attached, and you are left with an inflamed, sometimes infected stump that is harder to deal with than the tag was.

Do not cut it off. Skin bleeds more freely in pregnancy, and a skin tag bleeds more than its size suggests. Doing this over a bathroom sink with nail scissors is how a two millimetre nuisance becomes a wound you are trying to dress on your own neck.

Do not use a caustic removal kit. Those products work by burning tissue, and they do not know where the tag ends and your skin begins. The scar from the chemical is frequently more visible than the tag ever was, particularly on the neck and chest.

Do not freeze it with an over-the-counter kit. Same problem, different mechanism, and on thin skin in a fold it is easy to take far more than you meant to.

If one catches on clothing or jewellery and bleeds, clean it, apply pressure until the bleeding stops, keep it covered and clean, and call your care provider if it becomes hot, swollen, increasingly painful or starts weeping. That is an ordinary small wound and it is usually fine.

Why we will not remove them while you are pregnant

We will look at anything that is worrying you, tell you what it is, and say so plainly if it is nothing.

What we will not do is remove a benign lesion during pregnancy. There is no clinical reason to treat something harmless now rather than later, and “no reason not to” is not the same standard as “a reason to”. Our position across the clinic is the same, and the collected version is on our page about treatments in pregnancy and breastfeeding.

So if you came here to book a removal, the honest answer is: not yet, and probably not for a few months after the birth either.

What to do in the meantime

Mostly, reduce the rubbing. Looser collars, a better fitting bra, a different necklace or none, keeping folds dry, and cotton rather than synthetics in the places that get warm. None of that removes a tag. It does stop new ones appearing in the same spot and stops the existing ones being caught and irritated.

Beyond that, leave them alone. They are not a hygiene problem and scrubbing will make the skin around them sore.

Afterwards

Some settle on their own once your shape changes back and the friction stops. Many do not. If they are still there several months postpartum, they are unlikely to go by themselves.

At that point removal is quick, and it is done after a proper look at the lesion. Skin tag removal starts at $150 for the first 20 minutes, and several are usually dealt with in one appointment. The assessment is the part that matters: anything that is not a skin tag does not get removed here, it gets referred.

If you are breastfeeding, that is worth saying when you book, because it changes what we are willing to use for some treatments and nothing at all for others.

The other pregnancy skin change people arrive with

While we are on the subject: the brown patches across the cheeks, forehead and upper lip that appear in pregnancy are a different thing entirely, and the one most people want addressed once they are done feeding. That is melasma, it is driven by hormones and sunlight together, and treating it in the wrong order makes it worse. We have written about telling melasma from sun spots, and the melasma page covers what the clinic does about it.

Sun protection in the meantime is the one thing that genuinely helps, and it is free.

If you are worried about something specific

Phone the clinic on 647-333-6805 and describe it, or come in and let somebody look. An assessment costs nothing, and being told that a thing on your neck is boring is a perfectly good outcome.

Bradford Skin Clinic and Medical Spa, 444 Holland Street West, Unit 2, Bradford, Ontario.