Noticing a brand new lump or bump in your pores and skin is rarely a cheerful discovery, particularly if it is one thing unfamiliar — not your garden-variety wart, mole, or hives — and also you’re unsure whether or not to fret.

Even the time period “lump” or “bump” might be complicated. Located on or simply beneath the pores and skin, these growths might be virtually flat or “cause the skin to pooch out over them,” says Dr. Rachel Reynolds, interim chair of dermatology at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Beyond that, their traits run the gamut: mushy and squishy or rock-hard, movable or mounted in place, spherical or irregularly formed, or rising slowly or rapidly.

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