Question 62
Dear Doctor N,
I am 34 and had a partial hysterectomy (is that what you call it when you have the uterus and one ovary taken out?) last April. I had a tumor that had grown larger than a grapefruit and had completely taken over my left ovary. Thankfully it wasn't cancer. Now my one remaining ovary has a cyst on it. My doctor put me on birth control pills to see if that would cause the cyst to go away. I've been on the pills for a month and the cyst is still the same size. I'm tired of the discomfort and worry of it getting so large that I would need another major surgery. I've had a laporoscopy before and it was easy to recover from. My thought is take out the ovary and cyst if that can be done through laporoscopy and let me take hormones. My doctor doesn't want to take out the ovary because of my age. Am I being nieve to think that having my ovary out and going on hormones will be better than what I'm going through now? I would appreciate your comments.
Thanks!
Reply:
At 34 most of the ovarian cysts that occur are benign and often part of ovaries estrogen producing process. The most important thing is to make sure that the cyst is benign. One of the ways to do this is to give birth control pills, which are actually a more potent form of hormone replacement than given to postmenopausal women. The rationale is to relieve the ovary of its estrogen producing work and see if the cyst will get smaller. If this works and you are a non smoker and have no other contraindications, there is no reason you just can't continue to take it if the ovarian cyst returns and there is confidence that it is benign.
I would hold on to the ovary as long as it is reasonable medically.
Dr N