Ovarian Cysts - Surgery to remove?

Hi, had a scan confirm today that I have a cyst in my ovary that is over 8cm in diameter (so size of a tennis ball roughly), had to have an internal then & there to check out a few other things but the Dr on call wasn't happy and they are referring me to a gyno ASAP and said i will require surgery to remove.

Can someone explain to me what the process is, name of surgery ...how long will I be in hosp for etc And if the procedure is similar to that of a lap where they can check for endo & scarring on the fallopian tubes?

Earliest appt I could get with my doc to discuss it is friday, so in the meantime I'm just trying to find out a bit more.

Had a 6cm cyst throughout pregnancy that was never followed up, unsure if this is the same one but the sonographer & Dr were really cagey with me and wouldn't give away too much, said all my questions/concerns would need to be brought up with the gyno i see and that they didn't want to go into too much detail, something about needing to have a biopsy

Thank God for medical insurance is all i can say. (scan i had today was one i'd totally forgotten about, it was booked through the public system last APRIL, only got a letter last week saying i had an appt, figured it was free and I've been pretty sick for quite some time now with constant cramping, bad periods and nausea etc etc ...funny how things work out eh).

Any advice or some kind of idea whats involved would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

ETA: have been experiencing symptoms of endo for quite some time now, Doc is wanting to look into it a bit further - is there some kind of connection between PCOS/Ovarian Cysts and Endo?

Edited by BuzzyBee

Thanks Kelly, life is a bit of a biarch at the best of times but you just have to deal with it really. Certainly getting my moneys worth from Med insurance though, at this rate I'm going for at least 1 surgery a year

Ohh and for anyone that knows a bit more about this, is it a genetic thing? My Dad's family (his mother and most of his sisters) thus far have had ovarian cysts too (along with cervical, ovarian and breast cancer - the works) ...

Yeah what's that saying about 'when it rains it pours'. Kinda feeling the same here with Nana & Pop's medical conditions (and amputations etc), Aunty having cervical cancer etc etc. Everything definitely seems to all crop up one thing after the other around here.

Edited by BuzzyBee

Yeah I googled it a bit, lots of conflicting info online and some of what I read scared the sh*t outta me, i'd rather hear personal experiences iykwim (a lot of the sites were overseas too, so may do it differently).

Can you remember how long your friend was in hospital for? I won't be as phased if its just a day surgery (still have issues with leaving my little guy)

Awesome, thank you darling

And hugs for your friend, sounds like she's had a really bad run of it in the last few years.

and ps. LOVE the name you've chosen for your son!

Wow 3.2cm, that makes mine sound rather large And yup the pain is pretty unbearable, I've been curled up in pain & sleeping HEAPS in the last few months, just progressively getting worse. Wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy.

But in saying all that, part of me is glad the scan picked it up - otherwise we'd be back at square one wondering why I'm always in severe pain with that god-awful cramping in the lower regions.

Laparoscopy - someone correct me if im wrong but isn't this the same procedure as the one they do to determine whether a woman has endo and what stage it is at?

And what kind of incision did they make to remove your cyst Rianna? Was is keyhole, through the belly button or a slice across the pubic hairline? Any scarring/stitches?

My cyst removal was exactly like lap surgery, 3 small incisions then using gas to expand abdomin as they preformed the surgary. i was told that recovery from this is fairly quick, a few days of taking it easy and was meant to be day surgary. But the doc's ended up finding endo which they removed bits of, then very blocked f-tubes which they also tried to unblock which meant when i woke up i was in agony and stayed in hospital overnight and had about 10 days of barely being able to walk. Like you am very happy to have medical insurance! although in still cost us $1200.
Scaring pretty little, you can see the one just under my belly botton when I wear my bikini but not the other two. Recovery has been great. I didn't realise how crap I felt for most of last year as it happend so slowly until it burst.
Best of luck, PM if you have any more questions.

BuzzyBee wrote: Awesome, thank you darling And hugs for your friend, sounds like she's had a really bad run of it in the last few years. and ps. LOVE the name you've chosen for your son!

no worries, yeah shes a trouper.
Im really a bit thick tho , I was about to ask you how you knew what name I had for baby , then I realised its on my ticker....duhhhhhh!

Hi Buzzybee

Looks like you have had all your questions answered. But endo, cysts and PCOS are all related so best of luck. I had endo from when I first started getting my periods at 11 and have had painfull heavy periods ever since. If you need anything else answered let me know.

Hoping someone here reads this and knows the answer -

I've just worked out that I'm coming up for AF a couple of days after my appt. with gynae (although lately it's been getting later and later ), no doubt it will effect when I can have the surgery - am I right in thinking this? Do they have to work it around your cycle?

If so, that means I'll have to wait till at least March to have the cyst removed