13 cm ovarian cyst

Hi Bernadette.

I wouldnt worry that your so close to tests at work. You will be more rhan likely waiting a while before there doing any surgery. Lots of doctors like to monitor it for a while to see if it grows or shrinks. If it is not causing you any pain or discomfort just delay it untill it suits you. I delayed mine but now im in a lot off pain & my app to see my consultant has been cancelled, which means i now have to wait till the end off april. Im sure all your bloods will come back ok. Its highly unlikley they turn into cancer. Do you know what type off cyst you have?. X

13cm should be possible to be done laparoscopically since it can - if there was some liquid inside still - drained or form-manipulated.

They usually always start out with the most less invasive techique (laparoscopy) also start out with the most ovary saving technique, too.

If a laparotomy has to be done, it can be cut horizontally into bikini line and will be not obivous at all, maybe even less obvious than a laparoscopy with multiple cuts above the bikini line. ;-) 

It is very unlikely you would get a vertical cut from top to bottom in the middle of your belly. Just ask out loud if you are concerned.

Ask, if it was a cyst = liquid inside plus some structures or if it was purely solid mass. If there was a chance of a luteal hemorrhagic cyst (with a blood clot only giving the structures) or not. A hemorrhagic cyst can disappear still. Anything else won't.

If there was liquid (as well as solid non-blood clot mass), it can be drained and made smaller or squeezed into oval shape for removal and pulled through a small cut.

My 9cm dermoid (only known via histology. Suggestions ranged from  'nothing, just liquid, simple' to 'oh, there is something inside, it doesn't look benign'....hence I don't trust any imaging prior removal anymore)

cyst was removed through a bit bigger cut in the belly button since it was flexible cyst, not bland solid mass, but a liquid filled cyst with some solid benign tumor mass (dermoid, hair, brain, bones and all).

I was 29, no complications, half ovary left where dermoid was = fully functioning, stitched up ovary left behind, and 1 year later married and pregnant successfully to full term.

The only way to tell what a complex cyst (and I assume yours is a complex one?) is made up of, is via histology.

No blood tumor marker can tell you. CA125 goes up into 100s even under inflammatory (non cancerous) conditions.

The markers are great as a starting base to monitor over a course of time, especially after removal of a histologically proven cancer growth, if they significantly rose. (stressing out: significantly, not just a few units, which are within normal testing fluctuation, meaningless)

But not really much more.

Since your wedding is a while away and recovery usually really quick, I would rather have it removed now in a term break, at least this year, than later, if it was I.

Also many people are burdened by the knowledge of having a 13cm cyst = anxiety, monitoring stress, finding risks hard to live with.

But you know best and work together with your docs please.

Cyst is not cyst. No one shoe fits all.

Some people rather live with their cyst/tumor, if they are more or less sure it was benign and not having pain.

I had no pain, but 9cm was a size, I really wanted to have gone and as histology confirmed: it would have never disappeared, only grown with all the 'twist' risks for the tube.

And even if one ovary was taken, there is the other one that will do all the work for 2 ovaries, instead of alternating ovulations, having all ovulations in one ovary. Will take adjustment time, but it does work. Also if a cyst/tumor compromises one ovary, the healthy tissue is squeezed and not working the same anyway. So keeping it squeezed to count 2 ovaries is not really that much of a bonus either.

Then the worries during pregnancy, what the cyst will do.

Ovary saving removal would be awesome.

Please talk to your doc, what the options, risks and benefits were. 

You will find the solution that suits you and your condition. 

All all the best!