I later had a staging and mass removal lapartomy with conservation of my uterus (it was untouched by cancer). They took one look, thought it didn't look good, found a piece of mass that had broken off so took that as biopsy (didn't want to biopsy mass itself) so closed up. This was a exploratory surgery to see if it could be biopsied and have a better look (I was in the UK and they couldn't do pathology while I waited on the operating table which seems to happen here in the US). I then had a laparscopic surgery as though the cyst was complex solid they still thought it would be benign due to my age.

I was 32 when I was diagnosed however as the ultrasound looked ominous (solid complex mass encompassing tube) so they ordered a MRI and CT before surgery to get a better look which showed multiple masses. Good luck!Īs you are pre-menopause and they are talking about draining it sounds like it is a fluid filled cyst which are more typically benign so it sounds like they are running with the more likely scenario. But since you're young and would like to keep as much of your reproductive organs as possible, you should definitely talk to your surgeon so that he knows your concerns. Anyways, I might've just lucked out because the severity of my situation was relatively low. I'm probably going to end up taking two quarters off from school to recover from surgery and finish the chemo. Also, my incision is about 10 inches because he had to cut higher to perform the lymph node staging. So when I woke up, the first question I asked was 'what time is it?' When they answered, I knew that the cyst had been cancerous, but they quickly reassured me that I have one ovary left. However, I was originally a Ia but because he left some of my organs, it bumped me up to a Ic and so now I have to do chemo. I'm only 23 and want to have children eventually, so my parents asked him to save my uterus and remaining ovary if possible, which he did. Once I was on the operating table, they knew right away that the cyst was c), and the doctor came out to talk to my parents. If the frozen section (that's the on-site pathology) showed it to be cancerous, he would have to cut farther up and remove my lymph nodes. They still told me about the possible outcomes: a) benign b) cancer more commonly found in young women (I think it's called a germ cell tumor?) c) cancer more common in elderly women My cyst was too large to be taken out laproscopically, but the surgeon told me if it was benign, he would take it out with an incision up to my belly button, and it would take about an hour. My CA125 was 31 and other tumor markers all came back negative.

I had an 18cm cyst on my ovary and prior to surgery, they were pretty sure it was benign.

Grapefruit size ovarian dermoid cyst