What exactly is a Lipoma?

My uncle had these and was often getting the ones that interfere with daily living removed He had one on his sitter and one on his underarm where you rest on the table. He was told they can be dangerous if they press on important things.

It is a benign tumor of fatty-like tissue. Wikipedia has an excellent article on the different types.

@faye I had actually never heard they could be dangerous, but I do understand how the location would make that possible, interesting.
@YARNLADY thank you! I appreciate that

I had one in my arm. My GP told me it was nothing, and they really are nothing, and took it out right there in his office. It came back. When it came back about a year later I had it removed by a plastic surgeon and that was the end of it. That was about 15 years ago. That particular one never came back and I haven’t had another one, anywhere since. And there not dangerous. You should have any lump biopsied, I think, but if it truly is a lipoma the biopsy will come back negative. Finding a lump anywhere on your body can be scary but all lumps are not equal. Many are not dangerous at all. That being said, I was still glad to be rid of it once and for all.

It’s extremely rare that any lipoma might be or become dangerous, really. They are benign, first of all. But, if you’ve got one growing internally, not under the skin and grows long enough and becomes large enough to start impinging on some vital organ, then maybe, but really, they are not something to get too worried about.

They’re benign fatty tumors in the soft tissue. They are not attached to the muscle but in the subcutaneous tissue (although you can have deep lipomas). If you know what you are doing they are ridiculously easy to remove, but as @lillycoyote said they can come back. I had one patient once where I took off about 10 in 30 minutes.

Just a lump of fat. I have a friend that had one on his neck, it was simple in office procedure to remove it. He was back to work the next day. He could have worked that day, but yea he’s a male and he’s a wuss.

@JustJessica I’m not sure why, but that last part just made me laugh out loud literally! Haha. Thank you all for your answers, now I suppose I’m just left wth the curiosity of what causes them.

I thought it was kinda funny too.

@JustJessica and @tigerlilly2 Sure, it’s funny until you’ve got one growing in your arm; when it seems like your body has somehow gotten it’s hands on a melon baller and has scooped something out of your big, fat ass and decorated your arm with it, it’s not so funny. It’s kind of creepy and and embarrassing to know that not only are you getting fat but that your arm is independently growing it’s own lumps o’ fat. Laugh now, ladies. It could very well happen to you. :-)

@lillycoyote I apologize, no offense meant! I have actually had a tumor that was not a lipoma, so I can sort of understand. It would be frightening, of course. But the way @JustJessica worded her sentence made me chuckle!

@tigerlilly2 No offense taken, you know that, right? I was hoping the “big fat ass” tone of the comment would convey that but it’s so hard to tell on the internet sometimes. And I didn’t say it was frightening. I said it was kind of “creepy and embarrassing” to be manufacturing my own “lumps o’fat” in my arm. Not scary at all once I knew what it was.

@lillycoyote oh! No, I actually thought you were serious. I cannot for the life of me sense what kind of tone a person is conveying over the internet. They need to invent voice commentation already haha.

@tigerlilly2 LOL. No, not serious at all. I’m curious though. What part of the, and I paraphrase myself, “my body seemed to have gotten a hold of a melon baller and is scooping something out of my big fat ass and decorating my arm with lumps o’ fat” comment did you think was serious? :-)