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TTC with ovarian cyst?

8K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  Nedal gasssim 
#1 ·
Hi ladies:

Just wondering if anyone has had experience with this. I was diagnosed with a 5 cm left simple ovarian cyst about 6 weeks ago, 2 1/2 weeks after I miscarried. It was an incidental finding. The u/s has been reviewed by Radiology and a few others and there is no concern for malignancy. I do trust this. However, I went back to my doc today and she says she can still feel it. For me, it is asymptomatic even with sex. She says it would probably be better to wait to TTC until it resolves or I have it removed. I forgot to ask her why? Obviously, if there's a question of cancer I guess that's reason enough to wait; but she is adamant that it's not malignant.

Problem is, I am 42 1/2. She says the followup u/s might not be able to be scheduled till December, since the cyst is "harmless." I'm not entirely sure we want to try again, but I think we do and that takes away months of prime time! I have another appointment with her at the end of September and she still thinks it may well go away on its own.

Anyone else been in this type of situation?

Oops. Just realized I should have posted this in the TTC forum.
 
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#2 ·
I don't have experience with cysts during pregnancy or when trying to conceive, but I did have a cyst rupture in December of last year, and can understand why your doc might want you to wait.

When the cyst ruptured at about 11pm, there was a sharp, persistent pain in my lower abdomen, which I thought at first was gas or constipation, as I knew nothing about ovarian cysts, and it lasted through the night. As the night progressed I started to get chills and severe nausea, and then in the morning I was getting these weird cramps. Every time I moved, laughed, took too deep of a breath, my whole torso would seize up and I would convulse uncontrollably, it got so painful that I would scream in pain, completely against my will. This got worse over a couple of hours and my DH started freaking out and insisted I go to the hospital (I'm the type that never wants to get medical attention). It turned out that the convulsions were caused by the blood from the cyst filling my visceral cavity and pressing on my diaphragm. When I got to the hospital I received a PET scan and diagnosis, and had two get two units of blood transfused. That happened in the night, and in the morning they started getting me prepped for surgery, but at the last minute the surgeon decided to do one last blood test, and found that my platelet levels had stabilized in the last two hours. They decided to wait and see what happened rather than just operating, and I continued to stay stable, so after another 24 hours they released me from the hospital. I was very happy to not have the surgery, especially as they warned me that there was a good chance I would lose my ovary as the cyst was quite large.

The doctors stressed several times that I was in a life-threatening situation.

The recovery was a few weeks long, I was exhausted and very uncomfortable because of the blood loss and all the blood just sitting in my abdomen, and the cyst itself just being rather painful.

So... I can definitely say that this is something I would never, in a million years, want to happen while I was pregnant. They also were very adamant about doing a blood pregnancy test to make sure I wasn't pregnant, as it is such a serious thing, and even more serious if one is pregnant.

I can see why you are anxious to get preggers soon, but I would just try to get it checked out sooner, and wait until the cyst is gone.
 
#3 ·
Cysts can also upset your hormones depending what type it is, it may make it difficult To have a regular cycle till it resolves.

I also want to mention that the prior story is a very worst case senario, most cysts resolve with just a small but disruptive pain, others resolve with little to no pain. It helps to know what they are filled with. Best case it's just fluid, bloods a bit worse. Others are filled with more solid stuff and do often require intervention.
 
#5 ·
Thanks, ladies. This is a simple, fluid-filled cysts with no blood flow, nothing solid, very thin walls. That's the reason nobody wants to intervene. Everyone says it's harmless. The doc did say I wold likely know when it "popped," and said that if there was nausea/really severe pain, I should head to the ER; as katroshka experienced. I was worried about this kind of thing too, as I thought ruptured cysts were by definition a medical emergency. But she tells me it's rare for these kinds of cysts to be life-threatening when they rupture. It helps to know why I need to wait, though; so thanks. My cycles have already returned to completely normal, despite the miscarriage and the cyst. So it's frustrating, because I feel really ready to try again. Getting the u/s early wouldn't change things, I don't think, since nobody wants to operate. What I might do is go to a naturopathic reproductive clinic and see if there is anything I can do to help get rid of the cyst that way. I've googled a bit and it does seem there are naturopathic remedies out there for this. Thanks again.
 
#6 ·
I had a 7cm cyst after a round of clomid last year. I had to wait to start IVF because my RE didn't want to start hyperstimulating my ovaries until the cyst resolved, but she didn't tell us to avoid TTC - just that she wasn't willing to subject me to more hormones until my ovaries were normal again. But it was a very simple corpus luteum cyst, not blood-filled and not pressing on anything critical.

After three months of waiting for it to resolve with no progress, we were starting to look at needle aspiration - but I accidentally got it to go away by falling on ice and, erm... squashing it.
It was a pretty hard fall down a short flight of stairs, I landed on the side with the cyst, and that evening I distinctly felt it rupture. Which wasn't bad - I was making dinner at the time, and I remember grabbing the counter, swearing under my breath for about thirty seconds, and then going back to chopping vegetables. I was already scheduled for an ultrasound to check on it the next morning - where it was discovered that the cyst was gone (to everyone's surprise except mine) and everything looked fine.

I can't really recommend falling on ice as a cyst removal method (the bruises and strains from the fall hurt a lot more than the rupture!) but it did give me a good story to tell.
 
#7 ·
Kythryne, thanks! It's a corpus luteum cyst I've been diagnosed with. That's interesting that you weren't told not to TTC. I'm not sure my doc knows I really want to do this, since I'm 42 1/2 and I have expressed ambivalence since the m/c. I think I was so relieved to hear her forcefully say this was benign that I didn't really get into the baby stuff too much. It kind of makes sense that since hormones are probably responsible for the cyst (the theory is that it arose from this last pregnancy and didn't have time to go away, as they normally do after the first trimester). The timing is just really unfortunate. I know she'll try to help if I ask her. Right now I'm just trying to follow an anti-ovarian-cyst diet I found on the internet. And I'll make an appointment with the naturopath who is considered the go-to for reproductive issues in this city. I have insurance to cover that, thankfully.

But I am really freakin' tempted to cause myself injury...
 
#9 ·
I'd definitely give acupuncture a try - it's a lot less painful.
I have PCOS and I had really good luck getting that sorted out when I was doing acupuncture every week with a good practitioner. I would have gone to her when I had the cyst, because she probably would have been able to help me get it cleared up quickly (and without falling on ice!) but I moved five hours away from her and haven't found anyone I really like here yet.
 
#10 ·
corpus luteum cysts can often continue to pump out progesterone, so it is good news that your cycle is still on track, i have had a large handful of them in my time and they always help up menstruation till the resolved.

i was having them regularly when i was about 20 and the larger they got the worse it was for them to rupture, i ended up purposely doing a lot of pretty vigorous torso trysting type aerobics that got them to rupture more than once. Step aerobics with lots of high knee crossing the body type stuff, i was kinda shocked it worked, but they were actually encouraged by by doc at the time and i'm really glad.

if your cycle is back and seems normal, i dont know why they still say no TTC, the pain is not so bad that it would cause a huge thing.
Do you chart? do you know you are ovulating again? because you may be bleeding without ovulating, it does certainly happen, sadly
 
#11 ·
Thanks for all the info. I've never charted, but I do wonder if I'm ovulating. The last cycle was the first "real" one since the m/c, though I had what was supposedly a period 2 1/2 weeks after the m/c. That's how the cyst was discovered; I went to emerge with heavy bleeding and they did an ultrasound. My uterus was clear, but there was the cyst. The thing is, I had no pain and no breast tenderness, which I ALWAYS have. The doc said it was my period. I didn't know that was even possible in 2 1/2 weeks. Anyway, the next period followed exactly 27 days later; right on time for me. But again, no breast tenderness. Heavy and with pain, though; but I was told to expect that after m/c. That's what's so confusing. Many things that can be caused by cysts are also normal after miscarriage. But I ALWAYS get breast tenderness and it doesn't look like I am this month, either. Could that mean I'm not ovulating? Or could that be progesterone muting my usual estrogen-dominance?

My periods have been absolutely regular and the same since I was 9 or 10 years old. The only time I ever missed one, other than being pregnant, was in intensive care with broken jaws when I was 17. AF returned 7 months pp, even though I was bfeeding about every 15 minutes round-the-clock.
 
#12 ·
;15659080]I had a 7cm cyst after a round of clomid last year. I had to wait to start IVF because my RE didn't want to start hyperstimulating my ovaries until the cyst resolved, but she didn't tell us to avoid TTC - just that she wasn't willing to subject me to more hormones until my ovaries were normal again. But it was a very simple corpus luteum cyst, not blood-filled and not pressing on anything critical.

After three months of waiting for it to resolve with no progress, we were starting to look at needle aspiration - but I accidentally got it to go away by falling on ice and, erm... squashing it.
It was a pretty hard fall down a short flight of stairs, I landed on the side with the cyst, and that evening I distinctly felt it rupture. Which wasn't bad - I was making dinner at the time, and I remember grabbing the counter, swearing under my breath for about thirty seconds, and then going back to chopping vegetables. I was already scheduled for an ultrasound to check on it the next morning - where it was discovered that the cyst was gone (to everyone's surprise except mine) and everything looked fine.

I can't really recommend falling on ice as a cyst removal method (the bruises and strains from the fall hurt a lot more than the rupture!) but it did give me a good story to tell.
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