Ovarian cysts...experience?

[snapdragen]

I had one last year that was spotted when I had a scan of my hip. Got the lovely "dildo cam" (love that description!), my doc decided to just keep an eye on it. Went back every three months to verify it wasn't growing. It's not, so we're ignoring it. AFIK, it's disappeared on it's own.

Now, my mom, and a friend I used to work with, had massive cysts. Mom's was grapefruit sized, V's was huge, went up into her ribcage and weighed 8 pounds.

[zoom-zoom]

Now, my mom, and a friend I used to work with, had massive cysts. Mom's was grapefruit sized, V's was huge, went up into her ribcage and weighed 8 pounds.

HOLY crap!!! I've read about them that size. Did they have symptoms prior to diagnosis? I haven't had anything that stands out (aside from relatively minor bladder and bowel symptoms, which could be as much from endometriosis as the cyst -- the endo is likely responsible for that, too). I'm still nervous to hear the result of the blood work I had yesterday, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no news is good news. At 40 I am not at much risk of it being cancer...especially after having had a child, lactation for a year, years on BCPs, etc. Part of me thinks I may take this opportunity to push for removal of that ovary and my uterus. I don't need them anymore and if I'm gonna continue to have issues like this it makes sense to remove them.

[snapdragen]

HOLY crap!!! I've read about them that size. Did they have symptoms prior to diagnosis? I haven't had anything that stands out (aside from relatively minor bladder and bowel symptoms, which could be as much from endometriosis as the cyst -- the endo is likely responsible for that, too). I'm still nervous to hear the result of the blood work I had yesterday, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no news is good news. At 40 I am not at much risk of it being cancer...especially after having had a child, lactation for a year, years on BCPs, etc. Part of me thinks I may take this opportunity to push for removal of that ovary and my uterus. I don't need them anymore and if I'm gonna continue to have issues like this it makes sense to remove them.

Mom had said for a while that it felt like there was "something" not right. It wasn't until the doctor could feel it that she was believed. (Grrr to male doc's that don't listen) My friend felt nothing until she ended up in the ER in extreme pain.

[Melalvai]

Mine always always rupture. The first one was misdiagnosed as pelvic inflammatory disease. Apparently they are hard to diagnose. My mother-in-law also had hers misdiagnosed and I know someone else who was told it was her appendix. So if you have severe abdominal pain, be sure to mention your cyst. It might have ruptured. It will confuse you because the pain doesn't necessarily localize to where you think it ought to. It might hurt around your bladder instead of where your ovary is.

If it ruptures, it hurts like the dickens (I nearly passed out from the pain) but you are right, even if it ruptures it's not causing any damage.

It sounds like you are going to keep 1 ovary if you can, that is a good idea. Keep your own hormones for as long as you can. I was 31 when I had my ovary & uterus out. My doc tried to talk me into getting rid of the other non-diseased ovary but I said "if it lasts me even one year, that's one year where I'm not losing bone density (through lack of hormone) or increasing my breast cancer risk (through HRT)." It's been 8 years and it's served me well.

Be sure to send this link to your loved ones as a hint: http://iheartguts.com/shop/index.php...roducts_id=237

[zoom-zoom]

Ha, a plush uterus!!!

Yeah, I would love to avoid HRT for as long as possible, for the reasons you mention. My BFF had everything out at 25 due to stage 4 endometriosis and ovarian cysts. Scares me that she was on HRT for a decade (she's now in her late 30s and no longer on anything and doing well).