About 6 months ago my wife got what appeared to be a bruise under her big toenail.

It was right at the cuticle line and extended into the toenail only about 1/8th of an inch.

Oddly, it's still there.

There is no pain.

What could this be?

Thanks!

Probably is just that, a bruise, a break of a blood vessel. It could mean nothing or it could bear watching and mentioning to her doctor at her next visit. We don't know her general health. If she is overweight, diabetic, has high BP, any heart or vascular problems, or even seemingly unrelated medical complaints, she should see someone about it sooner.

I forgot to say that bruises under nail beds do stay much longer than under other tissue.

She is 5'2", 125#
No health issues.

Isn't it odd, though, that the bruise does not "move" forward toward the end of the toe?

No, just because a nail does doesn't mean the underlying bruise does.
I had a tiny round bruise under by big toenail, near a front corner, for years, and it seemed associated with pain I had, but the pain had been there for years before.


It turned out to be referred all the way down from the sacral nerve, which starts at the sacro-iliac bone and wraps around to the front of the abdomen. From there other nerves referred it down my inner thigh all the way to my toe, which mainly just felt very cold. (A neurologist told me not possible because no one single nerve goes all the way, duh.) I never did know why I got a little blood vessel break in my toe. I wouldn't say I saw a lot of doctors in 30+ years but it seemed like it, and not one had a clue (one tried to tell me the bruise was a mole under the nail). Anyway, I finally got the right diagnosis from a chiropractor. But that's neither here nor there in your case. What I am saying though is don't expect an easy diagnosis, if you even get one. Doctors don't get worried about bruises unless there are other problems they can relate it to.

Thank you, all. We will not worry about it, then, since there are no apparent side effects.

We're both 48 years young, so we'll just chalk this up as one of the oddities that come along with age.

Did she drop something on her toe?

It could take as long as a year or more for this to disappear.

Did she drop something on her toe?

It could take as long as a year or more for this to disappear.

She insists that she never dropped anything on it or injured it any other way that might cause a bruise. It's just something that she noticed one time when she was changing her toenail polish.

She DOES bruise easily, though... so maybe she did drop something on it but just forgot about it.

We'll not worry about it, but I'll encourage her to bring it up next time she goes in for her annual stuff.