Halo nevi - any reason for cocern?

Question

I'm an adolescent and i have a mole on my back and a mole on my arm, both of which have rings around them where my skin has turned white. the rings themselves are about 1cm in diameter.
I have seen doctors, who were urprised, but not especially concerned. Can you give me any more information about what they are please? why they come about? should I be worried? etc.
Thank you.

I hear they are called halo nevi and i have a link to what they look like:
http://webpath.dmsf.edu.ph/JPEG3/SKIN087.JPG

Answer 1

No reason for concern or worry at all. Halo nevi are common in adolescence and are completely harmless. For unknown reasons, your lymphocyte cells (causing the white area) are attacking your melanocyte cells (the ones that cause the pigmented darker areas). No one knows for sure why this happens, but it is of absolutely no concern.

Just keep an eye on them. If they start changing colors (getting really dark), get larger and less symmetric/round, or in any way change appearance in a weird way, return to your doctor. They can easily take a little shaving-type blade and cut it right off in less than a minute (after numbing you up, first, of course). Or, they will send you to a dermatologist to have this done. Then, they can send the mole to a pathologist, who will look at it under a microscope to see if anything really weird is going on, etc.

But if it is a halo nevus, it won't change...and has NO increased likelihood of becoming cancer or any other bad thing. And again, they are very common in your age, probably due to all the hormonal changes of puberty, etc.

Hope this helps.