What should you know about skin tag treatment?

Skin tags are soft, flesh-coloured or slightly darker growths that may hang from the skin on a small stalk. Friction from collars, jewellery, shaving or skin folds can make one catch, twist or become sore. A typical skin tag is usually recognised by examination, but a changing, firm, pigmented or ulcerated growth may be something else. Diagnosis matters because treating the wrong lesion can delay appropriate care or cause avoidable injury.

If a skin tag is not bothersome, observation may be reasonable after a clinician confirms what it is. If it catches, bleeds from repeated friction or affects your comfort, a clinician may discuss [Skin Tag Removal](/treatments/surgical-dermatology/skin-tag-removal/). Depending on the lesion and location, options can include freezing with [Cryotherapy (Lesion Removal)](/treatments/surgical-dermatology/cryotherapy-lesion-removal/) or using controlled heat with [Electrosurgery](/treatments/surgical-dermatology/electrosurgery/). Do not snip or tie it at home, since bleeding and infection are possible and the diagnosis may be wrong.

Book an assessment for a growth that is new and uncertain, enlarging, changing colour, persistently painful, bleeding without clear friction, or forming a sore. After treatment, contact a clinician about increasing pain, spreading redness, pus, fever or swelling. A prompt review is especially sensible when a lesion is near the eye, on genital skin or repeatedly injured.

Ask how confident the clinician is that it is a skin tag, whether removal is medically useful or mainly for comfort, which method fits the site, and how to care for the treated skin.