Should I Be Worried ?

I had a routine pelvic ultrasound done in March and a cyst of my left ovary was detected.

My gyn. said that it's normal, and it will go away by itself.

In August I started to bleed in an unusual way between periods. So beginning of September I had another unltrasound done. My gyn. was on vacation, so I showed the results to my regular doctor, she didn't pay much attention to the ovary and gave my a hormone therapy because she found a tiny mioma in the uterin wall.

I took the results and went to see my gyn last Friday anyway. She compared the two ultrasounds.
1- the fact that the cyst hadn't gone away after 8 months didn't seem to please her.
2- she noticed that it had changed its aspect.

She didn't look worried, gave me a simmilar hormore therapy as the doctor and asked me to get a blood test for CA125.

Now I know that the level of CA125 is checked for cancer, but it is not a very relaible test.

I'll do the test on Monday, but meanwhile, shall I sleep peacefully, or shall I be worried ? :confused:

Sorry my question is strange. Actually I AM worried :(

Aline,

You know, sweetie, I am the kind of person who just feels that it is vital to wait until you have more information before you begin to worry. Let's wait until after the CA125 comes back and see what that shows. Have you asked your GYN what she will do if that is negative? For example, is she considering doing a laparoscopy to remove the cyst?

What I'd like to say is "don't worry" because I hate to think of you upset about this. But, I know that even that won't stop you from worrying. :(


((((( hugs )))))

Thank you Katrina for your reply. No, I didn't ask her because I thought it's just an unimportant thing that's making me bleed. I was surprised by the hormonal therapy.

It's later when I came home with the paper to get the CA125 test, and I checked on Internet that I became worried.

I'm not seeing her after the blood test, but she will receive the results and of course will call me if the CA125 level is high.

But I also read that CA125 results may come out negative even if we DO have cancer :(

Thanks for the hug. I needed it.

(((((ALINE)))))

when i went thru my cancer scare last year and it did end this year, thank you GOD! i asked about the CA125 test, i later found out because i am constantly on steroids for my asthma, i would not be a likely canidate for this test. i think that the results if high warrant further investigation, but i have never heard of them being negative, and still have cancer.

i am sure that all these tests can be sensitive. if your pap smears are normal then that would rule out cervical cancer, and with the pap tests that i get and the biopsy of my uterus, i was able to pinpoint the problem, i had a PREcancerous condition, called carcinoma-in-situ, meaning the outside skin of my cervix had high level dysplasia to a point it was referred to as C.I.S.

i had three biopsies and a leep and had a normal pap in september, again praise God.

the most important thing is to stay on top of anything unusual a doctor finds, i was blessed with three excellent doctors, i switched twice, always moving a step up to a doctor who was a specialist, i left NOTHING to chance, there is so much that can be done today with cancer, that is the great news, but the better news is getting it before it does anything, i am very happy with my outcome and i know you will be fine now that you are on top of it, but dont stop until you have your questions answered SPECIFICALLY to why these symptoms are happening, do not let a doctor put this on the back burner, find out exactly what is going on.

in the meantime, love to you, hugs to and a prayer your way for a peaceful weekend, whiterose is right, worry causes more damage than any good, you are on top of this, now you just have to get to end of it.

i bleed inbetween periods also, this can be a hormonal issue and that is why the hormones were perscribed, i really am not a fan of hormones to be supplimented into a womans body, i have never even been on the birth control pill.

but those are my choices.

the other reason a woman bleeds is because she is ovulating, right as rain, i have been like this since i turned thirty. i feel little twinges of mild pain for a day and then i bleed lightly for a day. i have lived like this for 17 years and do not take hormones for it, ask you doctor about this, it really is no big deal.

Thanks Ulta for the hug and Kittylane for your posts. Glad you came out of it in good health. I really hope that it's a false alert also.

I've never taken the pill either and my periods are very regular. I did get the test for pre-menopause , it was done at the same time as the ultrasound in September. It came out normal. I have other symptoms too. The bleeding is is getting heavier, my belly is bloated etc...

Perhaps I should stop looking for things on Internet. I

such as this for example:

At its best, the CA-125 test will yield a number of false positives and negatives when used as a screen for ovarian cancer. At its worst, some of those false positives will result in women undergoing major abdominal surgery that wasn't necessary as well as all the terror of thinking they had cancer in the ramp-up to those operations, and some of those false negatives will fool women who do have ovarian cancer into thinking they do not have the disease, resulting in valuable time needed to combat this killer being lost to complacency. And with ovarian cancer, time lost is quite potentially life lost.

I know how scary it is to wait on results like that, Lou. Several years ago I was just at my gyn doctor for a yearly pap and she wanted an US. A large mass found, on what they thought was my ovary. So it was just assumed that I had ovarian cancer. Was sent to gyn oncologist for laparoscopy and instead was a large fibroid on the uterus (noncancerous), ovaries were fine.

I refused a hysterectomy and hormones, and got along fine until 1 1/2 yr. later, started to bleed very heavily with large clots. I still refused surgery thinking it would just "go away". When my Hgb got down to 6, finally agreed to have a hysterectomy. Still have one ovary left, the other one had ruptured due to so many adhesions. But I also had an elevated CA125, and was a false positive. Sometimes the hormones can help decrease the bleeding, sometimes a stronger hormone called lupron is used successfully, but can have severe side effects. Sometimes a hysterectomy is done, to prevent severe anemia and frank hemorrhage.

Best wishes on a favorable result! You will be in my thoughts.:)

please relax, you have done all the right things and i did the same thing as you did and researched like crazy, while on ageless last year and this, would you have known i was petrified out of my skull with fear? i was, i am here and fine and ok and normal and perfectly healthy. all of this is very scary, sometimes we do ourselves a huge disservice by being to inquisitive and smart, Godbless those who dont "think" to much.

i think my next question to the doctor would be, what "IS" the test to determine what is happening in my body, it kinda sucks to be referred to a test that is not a sure fired way to determine health issues, by all means STILL DO IT!!! but honey girl, i totally understand your emotions right now, think of me and how everything worked out fine in the end and just put one foot in front of another.

till then, have a glass of wine and relax!! that's an order.

I don't think you have big things to be worried about. I don't know how old you are, and I'm not asking you to reveal it on here, but that would be a factor in my mind....your doctor is just being thorough by doing the CA-125, which is, as you've learned, inconclusive. But it is a tool.

The bigger question to me is why are you being put on hormones? To control your periods? To stop break through bleeding?

Lots of women have ovarian cysts. They don't turn into cancer.

Let us know what happens...

i have no idea, as i am ignorant concerning the entire thing, but i wanted to tell ya than i'm sending you happy thoughts and hugs ((((aline)))

Thank you lencarol and kittylane for sharing your experiences, it really helps to hear simmilar stories from other women and to know that they're well and healthy.

Thanks Tracy for your encouragement and Kat for your post.

I'm 42, it's not a secret and I've always minimised health problems. Doctors are usually angry with me because I have to be near dying to go see them and I usually don't do more that half the tests that they ask me to do.

But lately I've become a bit hypocondriac I suppose. Is it because within a few years I lost 5 friends to cancer, including my best friend this summer ?

Anyway, I should leave internet alone, just trust my doctor or ask for a second opinion and see what happens.

The cyst is very small, but it turned from homogeneous to heterogeneous, it didn't go away by itself and I'm bleeding between periods, heavier bleeding the second time time.

She gave me a hormone therapy in order to stop the bleeding. But I don't understand why they don't just take it out and examine it ?

Is the cyst causing you discomfort in that area, Aline? If it's not causing you discomfort, they won't want to do an invasive procedure just to remove it. Most cysts usually resolve on their own. The hormonal therapy is for the irregular bleeding, as you explained, which probably doesn't have much, if anything, to do with the cyst.

No, I don't feel any discomfort apart from the bloating. The bleeding IS directly linked to the cyst, at least that's what my gyn. confirmed.

Oops - my mistake, Aline. I had thought that the irregular bleeding wouldn't likely have been due to the ovarian cyst, but I searched for info on the National Institutes of Health website and you are right... it may be related to that.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001504.htm

Did she mention what size the cyst seems to be? Because that may be another reason why she doesn't feel it's necessary yet to perform surgery. Note what it says on the site I just linked to:

"Functional ovarian cysts usually go away without treatment. Oral contraceptives (birth control pills) may be prescribed to help establish normal cycles and decrease the development of functional ovarian cysts.

Simple ovarian cysts that are larger than 5 to 10 centimeters and complex ovarian cysts that persist should be surgically removed. Laparoscopy or exploratory laparotomy can be used."

So, much depends upon the size and the complexity of the cyst. And I'm sure she will be making another recommendation depending upon the CA125 results as well as what happens after you try the hormonal treatment.

Thanks for the link Katrina.

I have the results of the ultrasound. It measures 3.5 cm, so it's small. But the test also mentions some blabber in French that I cannot translate, so I researched and found out that from what the cyst contains it means that it's a complex one, that twists or bleeds or whatever.

Ok, I don't think I'm going to die soon, I have a busy week ahead of me, I'll do all of the needed tests and I'll be just fine. Maybe I'll go see my good old Dr. Azoulay to have a second opinion.

Thanks for all your posts and encouragement ladies.

I'll take some passiflore and sleep :)

YIIPPPPPIIIIIIEEEEEE !!!!

CA125 results = 13. Waaaaay bellow the 35 limit.

It's just a nasty twisting, bleeding cyst that needs to be taken out at some point !!!:D

Thank you for your support ladies. I'll try to freak out less next time :o

Ma cherie I am so happy for you!!!!! FELICIDADES cielo, and keep your good humor up! :D

Am glad you got good news.

((( hugs )))

yay! I am so happy that everything is good with you. :)

Thanks but I cannot take it anymore. Have been bleeding since August and I have abolutely NO ENERGY LEFT !!! I walk like a zombie, talk like a zombie and my doctor says "take the hormones and we will see what happens " :confused:

I'm assuming your doctor has done a CBC (complete blood count) to make sure you're not anemic?

I'm assuming your doctor has done a CBC (complete blood count) to make sure you're not anemic?


No Kat, they did not and worse than that, I went to see another doctor today (a top specialist) and he was outraged by the fact that this thing has been around for months and nobody asked me to do a dopler test.

I'm doing the dopler tomorow. If it's still there, it has to be quickly removed and analised . The probabilty that it's cancer is not totally eliminated.

I'm not too worried, rather upset to realise how incompetent doctors could be :mad:

you really do have to take your health into your own hands unfortunately. still here, i'm wishing you could have some basic bloodwork...seems reasonable.

hmm, i am older than you so i will pull big sister on ya.

FIRST OF ALL, a huge hug and blessings sweetie that we have another scary time behind us and its probably not cancer.

but i hear a bit of relief in your post and i am worried because it is not super serious that you will try to sweep this under the rug, you cant, this is a heck of alot easier to get rid of than cancer.

take the bull by the horns if you can and if you cant we will help you thru this, but get that damn thing outa ya.

pleeeeze.

i am so happy you are fine in the larger picture of life, yippee!

((((((Aline))))))

Ma cherie do what you have to do to take care of your health!