Cafe au lait spots are brown patches on the skin like very large freckles. Women on the pill often get them.

Thanks for all the info on "cafe-au-lait" spots.
Found a picture at:
http://www.nsc.gov.sg/commskin/Pigment/pigment6.html

What a great site gien!

Yes I think cloasma is the term.

Hi Ricky,

Please correct me if I'm wrong--

the cafe au lait spot I've had on my hand since birth is a cafe au lait mark...

if I were pregnant or taking the pill at sat out in the sun only to develop dark markings around my face and arms (that weren't there before I went out in the sun)that would be cloasma, right?

Just want to be clear... (in truth I'm shocked I could have cloasma...)
Divina

Divina - I haven't a clue as I thought the brown mark were the same sort of thing and called cloasma whenever they were produce BUT I stand to be corrected if I am wrong? Please advise.

My granddaughter (6 months) has one in the middle of her chest about 2 inches in diameter. I have a theory about it which is that since her grandmother on her father's side died of breast cancer and I gave her mother carcinocin when she was pregnant then MAYBE the cancer manifested on the outside ( probaby no way of proving this but interesting)Not that I think the cafe au lait mark IS cancerous but I guess it needs watching.

Hi Ricky,

I always thought Cloasma were the brown "masks of pregnancy" marks women get when the hormonal balance shifts (eg during pregnancy or while using BCPs). I always think of Cloasma as more of a Sepia symptom--that "brown saddle" across the nose. My mom's been calling my birthmark a "cafe au lait" mark since I was a child. The one case of cloasma I saw was on the patient's face...all around the forehead, cheekbones, and chin. It developed after sun exposure and STAYED for many months afterwards, then slowly faded. That had a diagnosed hormonal cause.

Could my birthmark be cloasma, too? It's never faded or changed shape--always just sort of "been there".

Divina