Is it really embarrassing to have your partner check your moles? Researchers at Northwestern University seem to think so, and they recommend that, despite such embarrassment, partners learn what to look for in moles that may be a potentially fatal melanoma. A Northwestern news release r
eports on the new study, which shows the benefits of a partner frequently checking for troublesome moles based on training to do so far outweigh the embarrassment. The researchers found that study participants who received skin examination training caught far more mole irregularities than those in the control group, and they also grew more confident performing the examinations. Common places to develop potentially fatal melanoma include hard-to-see areas where it’s hard to apply sunscreen, such as behind the ears and knees, the top of the head and around the swimsuit line on a woman’s bottom. Participants were asked every four months to indicate on a five-point scale how much they agreed or disagreed with the following two statements: 
“It is very embarrassing to have my partner help examine my skin,†and “I 
am very comfortable having my partner help examine my skin.†Based on their responses, melanoma patients and their partners eventually had no problems being checked for irregular moles by their partners. The study also found that mole observations men and women make complement one another. Men tend to notice mole border irregularities better than women, whereas women tend to see color variations in the moles better than men.