Cervical & Gynecological Cancers

Hi, my name is Ivana and I am really scared.  My mom passed away 10 years ago from ovarian cancer at the age of 54.  She was postmenopausal when she was diagnosed.  I have been very careful with my check ups since then.  I am BRCA negative.  I went for my annual pelvic, TV u/s and CA 125 blood test.  My CA 125 came back at 17 (nice and low).  However, a week after my TV u/s was done, my doctor's office calls me and says that I have a 2.8cm cyst on my left ovary and that I should get a followup u/s in 2 months.  I started asking her various questions about this cyst and got the following information: the cyst is septated (the report did not specify the width of the septation), color blood flow doppler was completely normal in the area, no mention was made of the shape of the cyst or any irregularity, there was no free fluid or anything else seen in my abdomen.  I do, however, have a small 3cm fibroid in my uterus, but I understand that is very common.  I have had a wierd cycle this month.  Right at midcycle (before the u/s) I started having alot of breast and underarm pain, I was also having twinges on both sides of the ovarian area and I just felt like there was something hormonal going on this cycle.  I am now about a week late for my period (I am sure the stress is not helping) and I am for sure not pregnant.  I am 40 (will be 41 next month) and 11 months ago had a completely normal TV u/s with a CA 125 at 27.  Two nurses tell me I have nothing to worry about and it is not cancer but should just be followed up.  I am naturally a worrier so I found a gyn/oncologist and have an appt with him on Tuesday.  I am going to bring my u/s films and reports to him for a 2nd opinion because I do not want to wait the 2 months.  I am also considering pursuing a prophylactic hysterectomy so I don't have to deal with this again.  Does this sound like anything that could be bad?  The wait until Tuesday is killing me.  Thanks in advance.

I realize you are so worried because of your family history but if you had 2 nurses telling you it's ok then try to focus on that. It's good you're being so proactive. I wouldn't venture an opinion as to the prophylactic hysterectomy because that is a very personal decision you have to make with the help of your doctor. Best of luck and please update us when you can.

I hope someone else who may have been in the same type of situation will chime in.

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Women At Work & Cervical & Gynecological Cancers

   

         

 

Thank you for responding to my post.  I actually went and had a consult with and GYN oncologist this past Tuesday.  He will redo the u/s at the end of this month.  He talked to us for about 30 minutes and said basically that he was not concerned that this 2.8cm cyst is OVCA.  He said that my u/s, CA-125 and physical exam do not correllate with someone that has stage 3 OVCA.  He told me that he sees 3 women with septated cysts per week and after 30 years of practice, not one of those cysts has turned out to be cancer.  That was very reassuring to me.  What was really scary was what he said about early detection and prevention of OVCA.  There basically isn't any such thing.  Apparently, there are certain (rare) kinds of OVCA that arise from inside the ovary and those are basically able to be caught in the early stages.  Epithelial OVCA (like my mom had and what I was worried about) is stage 3 from the get go, so "early detection" is not possible.  After everything I knew about OVCA this just floored me.  I did not know that, but now everything else makes sense.  My whole cycle is still messed up and I am now late on my period (but not pregnant) and I am really hoping that the stupid cyst is gone by the time of my u/s.  I am, of course, still nervous about this whole thing and do not know what I will do about the hysterectomy, but I guess my next step is to hurry up and wait.