Lipomas manifest as small lumps beneath your skin, which you can easily feel with your hands. The size varies from one mass to the other, but the texture of the lipoma remains the same. The said chances of getting a lipoma are one in a thousand people, which makes them a common occurrence. They can occur at any area of your body or internal organs depending on the site of formation. While some lipomas have little or no effect on the overall well-being of the patient, others are aggressive and cause complications. The harder a lipoma feels, then the more concerned you should get. Why? Because lipomas shouldn’t feel so and might be a sarcoma that just disguises as a lipoma.
How Does a Lipoma Feel?
How lipomas feel to different patients? If you are accustomed to your lipomas, then you attest that you barely notice them with time. Lipomas are not usually lethal and can be left alone and, years later they would still have not taken a toll on your health. But the same cannot be said for large lipomas, which tend to press on nerves, blood vessels and cause muscle numbness. On top of that, lipomas are benign, which means they are non-cancerous and cannot spread to other areas on your body. A solid painful mass should also act as a warning to you, as it might actually be a liposarcoma.
Different patients have different stories to tell about their lipomas. While some may just have one bulge, others may have several of them. The smaller a lipoma is, the more difficult it is to feel it, but the bigger it gets it might start feeling a bit heavier on their bodies. This especially applies to grow lipomas or bigger ones, which tend to cause the skin to stretch and bulge outwards too much. For patients who are highly concerned with their lipomas, then you can seek treatment to get rid of them.
The Characteristic of a Lipoma
Soft: Lipomas feel soft on the bare skin and you can easily feel that it’s just a mass made of soft content, in this case, fat tissues.
Movable: A lipoma is usually movable and if you try to nudge it with your fingers, it actually moves within its location beneath your skin.
Painless: Another important trait of a lipoma is that they are usually painless. When you touch the tumor of fatty cells, you hardly feel any pain, and if you do, then that might not be a lipoma. It is also not itchy.
Do Not Spread: Lipomas do not transfer into adjoining structures because they are bounded by a thin protein capsule which roots them in place.
Size: In terms of size, a lipoma barely grows beyond five centimeters in diameter. The size of a normal lipoma ranges between 1cm, 2cm and 3cm in diameter. However, you could have a larger sized growth, which is still non-cancerous.
Benign: It is a benign tumor that does not cause any life-threatening harm to your life. On the contrary, you will barely note they are there unless they a big in size and causing discomfort.
Region: They often manifest in areas where there is plenty of fat cells beneath the skin. Regardless, they can also form on the leaner part of your body that does not have many fat cells.
Diseases: Lipomas have been associated with various conditions such as; obesity, Dercum’s disease, hereditary multiple lipomatosis, Madelung’s disease and Gardner syndrome.
Conclusion
People who have never heard of or experienced lipomas can hardly distinguish lumps they may be having on their body. In addition to that, they may be oblivious of what the said lump should feel like, let alone know the traits of lipomas. Well, it is therefore important that when you get such a lump, don’t be quick to dismiss it. You should visit a medical practitioner for examination and get to know more about lipomas. Lipomas are not harmful and do not require any form of treatment. But, if you feel that it bothers you, have it removed through a surgical procedure. Otherwise, you can let it be and monitor it from time to time and seek help if it need arises.
- Cleveland Clinic. (2021). Lipoma: What You Need to Know. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17723-lipoma
Also Read:
- Angiomyolipoma: Changes in Kidney Structure Caused By It, Causes, Symptoms, Treatment
- Lipoma: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments, Herbal Remedies, Prognosis, Epidemiology
- Lipomatosis: Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment
- Spinal Epidural Lipomatosis: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment
- Madelung Disease or Benign Symmetric Lipomatosis: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment, Risk Factors, Diagnosis
- Epidural Lipomatosis: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, Diagnosis
