I am interested in experiences on treatment of this condition.
I have got a beckers nevus on my back right side. I would like to get more information about its removal
um hi…im sixteen and i only started to rlly notice the BN when i was lik 14…before it was just lik a regular birthmark but then it grew alot and turned darker…i think it was the sun that caused it but im not too sure… im supposed to start treatment with this Q something lazer it’s about $200 to test in an area i guess thats not too bad i rlly hope it works u wouldn’t believe how much this loweres my self esteem!..actually i guess u guys do understand:)
Im 29, female and of mixed ethnicity. I developed BN at age 11.
hey…
i am a female with a becker’s nevus on my upper left arm…thinking of getting a tattoo made over it…
My 3 month old child was just diagnosed yesterday with BN. She had it at birth, and it is huge. (Takes up about a quarter of her Trunk/arm) The Dr. said it would grow in relation to her growing, and didn’t mention anything about hair. This site is great. I hope to inspire in her a sense of great worth in having the BN as it will set her apart from her peers. I am Sooooo glad it wasn’t cancerous or a large Cafe’ au Lait which can be tumorous.
Hi every one,
I am a 25 yo male of Asian descent and also have a BN.
The BN is located on my face and covers my entire cheek region, so it has always been an embarrassment for as long as I have had it.
The BN first appears when I was around 11 and since then it has grown/spread and gotten darker as time passes on.
This has really affected me socially, so I have come here for support and advice from people that share the same feelings.
Does any one know whether the BN will stop spreading/darkening?
Or will it eventually consume the entire body part/limb etc?
i tattooed over mine… you can still see it… but its definitely alot harder to see
most people dont say anything about it now.
I am intending on getting blend method electrolysis done to remove the hair… i think the hair is the most annoying part.
hey everybody
i’m bob from edinburgh,i’m 31 years old and im just trying to catch my breath after discovering this website to find so many people like myself
it’s amazing what a bored night scanning the internet can turn into
i have had beckers nevus(i didn’t even know it was called that until 5 mins ago)on my upper right back since my mid-late teens-well maybe longer but thats when it became noticeable and very hairy
i have to run at the moment but i promise i will be back
this is like a breath of fresh air to me
take care
jaffa, I don’t think you have to worry much about it. I haven’t heard a case yet where the BN has consumed the entire body. It usually stops spreading/darkens after puberty. Though hairgrowth will probably continue.
Recently I was trying to grow my hair (to help detract attention from my BN on my cheek). Personally I thought it was fine, so did my brother (definitely far from ungroomed). Unfortunately my parents with the military mentality wanted it short for some reason and it just turned out worse… They even acknowledge how bad it got… Well, looks like I have a couple months to regrow that hair.
Despite this, I know my parents are trying to help. I just wish we were on the same level of understanding. But that’s most likely not possible until you are hit with BN yourself. Over the years, I’ve forgotten how i looked like before my BN. But as always, all my prayers go to the rest of you. BN is just a stepping stone (though it may be gigantic). You just got to prove yourself and overcome this obstacle. I think that’s what true character is all about.
Hi. I’m 21, male and Asian. And unfortunately I have a Becker’s Nevus on my lower right cheek/corner of my mouth. It didn’t appear until I was 15-16 and that’s when I started becoming extremely introverted. It’s extremely difficult for me to talk with others and I try to hide my BN, usually by turning my head slightly to hide my right mark. It’s getting really hard dealing with it, and it’s vexxing knowing there really can’t be anything done about it at the moment.
However, my prayers go out to everyone who shares this pain and I hope there is a cure to help all of us cope with it or better yet put it behind us.
I tried laser once, and all it did was scab. It got slightly lighter but the BN is still noticeable. I think I will avoid the laser procedures for now since not much was achieved. I am wondering, will electrolysis be too intense for facial skin (my skin is also very sensitive)? I also used to use a bleaching cream, hydroquinone, but that didn’t help reduce pigmentation and just irritated my skin further.
My only solution right now is to grow my hair out and wear it curtained over one side of my face to detract as much attention from my BN as possible. Tatoos seem out of the question for me.
I tried the Qyag5 laser by Palomar on the nevus and it didn’t do anything. 200 for a test shot is expensive. Where are you located? I’ve been currently doing some IPL, it has lightened it however, I don’t think it would work. There are little spots on the becurs nevus area where it appears to be normal skin, but then there are circular brown spots around the areas that have lightened. I don’t think that even if I did this 20 times, my becurs would go away. There would always be brown spots.
Hey Tanya,
Good luck with the laser test, I hope it works for you! Keep us posted, if the Q thing works, we really want to know it.
Hope it doesn’t hurt too bad when they do it, but if it works it would be worth it anyway.
Hey you guys,
I feel all your pain. We all pretty much share the same emotions when it comes to relationships. Im a 24 male whoes bn is on my left thigh. Its hidden most of the time from most daily activities. Dont let this thing hold you down though. There are way more things in life to enjoy than dwelling on something we cant do anything about anyway. There is love for everyone out there. ive been blessed to be in relationships and have a beautiful child. Live your life. Who cares about what others think. If people have a problem with it. Well their not right for you anyways. I see it as a way to filter out the superficial and the nonsuperficial. PEACE!
Ina,
Hi. I couldn’t have summed up my emotions any better! I am 29years old and amazed at how few people know about my Becker’s Naevus. I have been to a country in asia where they have a lot of spa’s. Strangely they everybody is naked! I must admit that being naked helps because people are kind of really self conscious (if they come from England) and it almost makes you feel less self conscious. I have become use to it more as I have got older as I realised that i either stay at home and be a hermit or go out in the world let the world see (well, one at a time maybe).
I am very athletic and in good shape (probably compensating for the BN?) and not bad looking. People and family constantly ask in public if I have a girlfriend yet. I feel so sad saying this. However, I have reached the point in my life where I have to do something about this, and talking about it on this site is going to help.
One of my good friends saw it for the first time, but still a large group of my friends don’t know. I wonder how they will react as I have known them for over 10 years now. Odd huh! I suppose I never told anyone, as I believed that there would be a cure, but as time has gone on, and as this site says, nothing has been invented yet.
I have fortunately had past girlfriends, but they have been brief affairs. Sex has been odd, as I wasn’t worried about the sex, but what they were going to say about you when they see the Becker’s Naevus. Most girls were polite and too self conscious about themselves (thank GOD), but haven’t found one that stuck around yet. Again, people judge you on this but hey. It just takes a while to find a nice one i.e. one that you think will not run a mile when they see it and trustworthy enough, you know what I mean?
Like I on some other section of this site. I don’t have the answers but I can understand your plight! I always thought about making up some story of some horrific snowboarding accident that left a big scar or something. That would be much better from a guys point of view that ‘it just grew when I hit puberty and it’s been there ever since!’.
Hopefully people will read this and share their experiences in life and offer guidance. Life is too short to worry about things and I don’t want to admit defeat.
I’m a young woman 22 years of age. I have Beckets nevus from about 9 years old. I never did anything to treat it. But now I’m old enough and feel really bad about it. I feel I can do things I would like to do. I live in a country with so much sun and sea and can’t enjoy it! I don’t go for swimming and avoid going out in the summer! Especially for a girl it’s really bad, I can’t wear the clothes I would like to wear. And I have no personal life. I’m good looking in general but the Beckers nevus destroys my whole image. It’s large,dark and horrible. I wouldn’t mind if it was at least smaller.
I would do anything to remove it! I hate it! I can’t believe there is no treatment that has results in our times. If I woke up one morning and it was gone I think I would be the most happy person on planet! It destroys my whole life! Please if you know anything new, find out a treatment or had yyour BN removed let us know.
First of all, I’m not a medical professional.
However, I have read a few articles on BN.
A few discoveries:
- It is benign
- It will not spread after puberty.
- Laser treatment is not very effective and not worth the risk.
I would like to add a few personal opinions:
- It is not a ‘disorder’ so stop thinking about it.
- If someone asks (and there are always people who can’t mind their own business), say it’s a birthmark. That will shut them up.
- Your relationships with your loved ones will not be affected at all by a pigmented/hairy patch on your body. People love you for the human being that you are. So stop imagining scenarios of rejection.
- Don’t be self-conscious. Your BN is a way of reminding yourself of the uniqueness of human beings.
I have a beckers nevus it covers my trunk and right arm and right leg. i am not the only one and i feel sad and happy at the same time. between you and I this is not all i can write, this is only my introduction to you. I know that the internet is the only technology that will help me to recover because i have never talked with anyone who has this condition and no longer search to cure what is myself.
I got my diangosis at 14 and knew that my gp was right to say this may cause problems with girlfriends he really cared. I was frustrating him all the time with my visits to him to replace myself but when i heard he died i felt so sad, because of he could see me today he would embrace me again and say you have finally faced your life and wear loose t-shirts and dont even clipper your body. Its not sex i am married with a child it is not a turn off.
I have gone swimming on holiday abroad and i have recently lost weight so for a middle aged man ii am apparently quite good looking it is because i shaved the areas of my body and the damage was done before i was told that it would spread to those areas i shaved. I did it to myself and i was right to think that only the people who truly loved me would not care about it.
My daughter and wife are the inspiring ones they do care for me but in me is a sadness that there are people who have a condition that is larger or on their face or they are girls. let me say that being sensitive about your difference is not a crime the more you feel the more you can feel for others and people will sense
My nevus had always been my weak point but not now. I saw a consultant when i was 14 and i went on my own and sat on a bench outside the hospital and cried for myself. It wasn’t the first time i had cried.
When I discovered it before i showed my mum i cried myself to sleep every night. as i grew through my teens and then 20s then thirty something i decided to deny the condition.
How can you fight something when there is no cure because it is too big (it is on my right chest, stomach, right of my back, right arm and right leg.
I have found talking to someone who is interested in me. I am married
and have a child so it definitely did not stop any sex ha ha but I have never
used the internet to connect with someone who has this also. You dont have to
have the condition to be sympathetic but talking to someone like me can only
help.
Please dont blame yourself, my nevus spread after i tried to shave other
areas of my body, but i was a child, it just happened before anybody could do anything about it and stop me making it worse.
I hear the voices “we all hear going swimming” or in communal changing areas, i see the looks people give me but now i know they are sympathetic looks and mothers telling their children not to stare because it will make me feel uncomfortable and i feel so great that people do care for me even if they are strangers.
We are luckier than most in that we will never die of our nevus not like something
like lung cancer, BE shocked i smoke at the moment. I get more looks walking
down the street with a cigarette than i do going swimming on holiday. Some people are amazed by my quirky condition and i put on a good show for them, you know like swimming a width underwater or just letting the water caress me as my slightly fat body glides over the surface, breast stroke, backstroke or crawl, I can do them all.
My moments of joy are getting closer together and someday i may feel that pride
all the time. My nevus is on my body not my mind. Wearing loose fitting Tee
shirts reveals some of the dark hair and strong coffee coloured skin and so i dont
hide it anymore. people do ask me about it after a time and some dont, i prefer
it when they do because they are really trying to understand something they have never seen before and they don’t want to offend me by looking and keeping quiet.
Someone even googled it for me to help and he did because he was a friend who saw he could help by making me think please care for your body if it is too big for the doctor to treat it is too big for you to treat. We are friends and he likes me for who I am.
Try to understand that when i say i fought my skin it is because i am a male but not getting aggressive over it; i look to my mums advice: and just try to be strong and
never give in to self-pity. It is alright to cry but never pity yourself. when you cry people will give you a hug, if you pity yourself they will say there is someone worse off than you, and there is, I don’t have the biggest beckers nevus in the country I come from but then hey I don’t have to impress.
hi venubhanot i have seen people wear a thing like tights that pretends to be a full arm tattoo it is printed and not some disaster tattoo. my daughter wants a tattoo to be in with peer pressure but i care so much about her making a mistake i wont give her consent until she is 95. but seriously it can only be dangerous, i may get a tattoo but it will only be on the skin that is unaffected.