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A new lump under the skin
Category: Skin, Hair & Nails · All skin symptoms
What it can feel like
A new lump under the skin is a swelling you can feel beneath normal-looking skin — soft or firm, mobile or fixed, painless or tender. The overwhelming majority are benign: fatty lumps (lipomas) and skin cysts lead the list. What matters is growth, firmness, fixation and company.
Possible causes
A symptom can have many causes, and most are not serious. The lists below group conditions this symptom can be associated with — common causes first. They are possibilities to discuss with a clinician, not a diagnosis.
Common causes
Lumps under the skin can be associated with lipomas (soft, doughy, slow-growing collections of fat), epidermoid cysts (with a central punctum, sometimes inflaming), ganglia near joints, and swollen lymph nodes after infection.
Other possible causes
A lump that grows steadily, feels hard or fixed to deeper structures, exceeds about 5cm, or recurs after removal can be associated with soft-tissue sarcoma — rare, but the reason persistent lumps are scanned rather than simply watched. Enlarged glands from lymphoma feel rubbery and appear in chains.
Red flags — when to seek help promptly
- A lump that is growing, hard, fixed or larger than a golf ball (about 5cm)
- A lump that returns after previous removal
- Lumps with unexplained weight loss, fever or night sweats
- A lump in the breast, neck gland area, armpit or groin that persists beyond a few weeks
- A lump that becomes rapidly painful and red (possible abscess)
What a clinician may do
A clinician will feel the lump's size, consistency, mobility and depth, and examine regional glands. Ultrasound is the usual first scan for soft-tissue lumps; lipomas and cysts are often diagnosed clinically or on ultrasound, while deep, large or growing lumps are referred for MRI and specialist assessment.
Watch: related videos
Examination and clinical videos from the MedicalVideos.com library relevant to this symptom. Some clinical footage is graphic — that is the nature of a medical video library.
Related guides on MedicalVideos.com
Frequently asked questions
How can a doctor tell a lipoma by feel?
A classic lipoma is soft and doughy like kneaded dough, mobile under the skin, slips away from pressing fingers, and has been growing very slowly for years. Features that break that pattern — speed, firmness, depth, size — are what trigger scanning and referral.
Why not just remove every lump?
Because most are harmless and removal leaves scars and can cause nerve damage or infection. The skill is selecting the minority with suspicious features. Uncertain lumps are usually imaged first rather than cut first.
Related symptoms — Skin, Hair & Nails
Browse the A section of the A–Z list or return to the Symptoms A–Z hub.