What Are Nasal Polyps?

A blocked nose that never really clears has a way of collecting explanations. It's just allergies. It's a cold that won't leave. It's a tumour, surely — that last one tends to arrive at 2 a.m. Nasal polyps sit quietly behind a lot of that speculation, so it helps to separate what people assume about them from what they actually are. The short explainer at the top of this page, "What is Nasal Polyp?", walks through the basics in just under four minutes; here's the myth-versus-fact version.

Myth: a polyp is a kind of growth you should panic about

Fact: nasal polyps are soft, painless, noncancerous growths that form on the lining of the nasal passages or sinuses. As the anchor video puts it, they hang down like teardrops or grapes. They develop when that lining stays inflamed for a long time — the same long-running inflammation behind chronic sinus problems, which is why polyps and chronic sinusitis so often turn up together. They're linked with asthma, recurring infections, and allergies, among other triggers. Unsettling to discover, yes — but benign by nature.

Myth: if you had polyps, you'd feel them

Fact: small polyps can sit in the nose causing no symptoms at all. It's the larger ones — or clusters of them — that make themselves known, usually by blocking airflow and drainage. The familiar pattern is a persistently stuffy or runny nose, a reduced or lost sense of smell, postnasal drip, and a feeling of pressure across the face. Because those signs overlap so much with allergies and ordinary sinus trouble, polyps are often found during an examination rather than guessed from symptoms alone.

Myth: you can diagnose them with a torch and a mirror

Fact: a clinician can sometimes see larger polyps with the simple instrument used to look inside the nose, but confirming them properly usually means a nasal endoscopy — a thin, flexible camera passed gently into the nose, the kind of examination pictured at the top of this page. If more detail is needed, a CT scan of the sinuses can show how extensive the polyps are and how blocked the drainage pathways have become. That picture is what guides the treatment plan.

Myth: surgery is the only answer

Fact: treatment usually starts more gently. Nasal steroid sprays are the common first step, aimed at calming the inflammation and sometimes shrinking the polyps; other medicines may be added depending on what's driving the inflammation in your case. Surgery — removing the polyps endoscopically, through the nose — is generally considered when symptoms stay troublesome despite that medical treatment. The brief animation "Nasal Polyp Removal Animation" shows what that removal involves in under a minute. One honest caveat: polyps can grow back, which is why follow-up and ongoing control of the underlying inflammation matter as much as any single procedure.

If your sense of smell has faded and stayed faded, or one side of your nose is persistently blocked while the other is clear, don't just file it under allergies — get it examined. Those details help a clinician decide what to look for.

MedicalVideos.com has published trusted medical videos since 2007. The site was founded by Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, MD, PhD — physician-scientist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are nasal polyps cancerous?
No. Nasal polyps are benign, noncancerous growths of the inflamed nasal or sinus lining. A clinician will still want to examine any nasal growth properly, because other, rarer growths can look similar — but polyps themselves are not cancer.

What causes nasal polyps?
They form where the lining of the nose or sinuses has been inflamed for a long time. They're associated with chronic sinus inflammation, asthma, recurring infections, and allergies, though in many people no single trigger is ever pinned down.

Can nasal polyps go away on their own?
They don't usually disappear by themselves. Treatment aimed at the inflammation — commonly a nasal steroid spray — can shrink them and ease symptoms, and surgery can remove larger ones, but they can recur, so ongoing follow-up is part of the picture.

Why have I lost my sense of smell?
Smell depends on air reaching the smell receptors high in the nose. Polyps blocking that area are a common reason smell fades, and it often improves as the blockage and inflammation are treated.

When should I see a doctor about a blocked nose?
If congestion, a runny nose, or reduced smell persists for weeks rather than days, or one side stays blocked while the other is clear, it's worth an examination — those are exactly the situations where polyps and other causes need to be told apart.

Educational only — this article is general information about nasal polyps, not medical advice and not a diagnosis. A persistently blocked nose, facial pressure, or a lasting loss of smell should be assessed by a clinician who can examine you.