Very very very strange medical mystery. Any guesses?

[Diemme]

I know this sounds unbelievable but around 25 years ago I had emergency surgery for excuciating pain from an ovarian cyst. When I woke up I was given the news that one of my ovaries had wrapped itself round the cyst, causing loss of blood flow and couldn't be saved. I'd therefore has one ovary and one fallopian tube removed. My mum was with me, there's no doubt it's what happened. I was given a kind of counselling session with the surgeon before I was discharged and reassured that I'd still be able to have children. Which I did, all good. Anyway I'm now 52, post menopausal and have had a recent scan and mri because I had some bleeding. Results were ok, I've got a polyp, nothing sinister. However both the scan and mri reported 2 ovaries! Dimensions of both were on the report and said appear normal. I've 100% got 2 ovaries. But I had one removed 25 years ago! Any guesses?

I had a cousin whose tonsils allegedly grew back. No idea what the truth was.

You could have had 3 ovaries, 1 could have been hidden they weren't expecting to see something that they didn't know was there?

Could part have been removed?
Very strange

Ooo that is strange. Interesting though.

The tissue can regenerate but pretty much impossible to grow back complete I thought. 3 to start with ... that really would make me feel unique!

These things are tiny so perhaps what they actually removed wasn't an ovary and tube but a cysts...

They were mistaken and thought they'd removed your ovary but had just removed a cyst

Are you able to access your medical notes from your op 25 years ago ?

There's clearly a mix up either of your current results or what actually happened in the operation years ago.

I suspect it was part of the Fallopian tube that was wrapped around and not the ovary. Was it a corpus luteum cyst ?

Disclaimer - not a HCP. Just had some thing similar.

There was a mistake. Most likely with your surgery as both scans show two.

I had the same thing. One ovary removed and when I had a scan years later they said that both ovaries looked normal. My consultant days that they automatically did that the right one (the one I had removed) was normal as they didn't even look, they'd just been asked to look at the left one.

Maybe the radiographer has a set form to fill in and didn’t notice they hadn’t updated the ovary bit properly.

I had an ectopic pregnancy and Emergancy surgery. It was recorded that they had removed the remains of one Fallopian tube and one ovary. I’ve had three scans since and on one of them they noted I had two ovaries. Obviously it has been recorded wrong on my notes but I’m still not sure which one was wrong!

Was it a corpus luteum cyst

I don't know. I could probably get details of the op from my GP. I did think that a mistake with the surgery was the most probable explanation but still unlikely. Doctors are fallible but a gynaecologist who didn't recognise an ovary?

I've no idea about fallopian tubes but ArriettyJones both my dad and I have had our tonsils regrow! Dad had his out twice. Second time seems to have stuck.

My friends dad has a scan once were they reported both kidneys were x size and functional well only he had one removed a few years before that...I. In his case it was the scan report that was wrong so the issue could be on either side talk to gp see what they think is most likely.

The original ovary would have been quite distorted due to the damage so it could be that what they were looking at was actually the Fallopian tube or another part of the anatomy. Or the recent scan results were wrong or you have always had 3.

My grandmothers tonsils also grew back after she had surgery to remove them.

That's pretty rough if you've spent years thinking you only had one ovary and in fact you still had two

Maybe you've grown another ovarian cyst that's the size of an ovary.

I had the same op for the same reason, but both ovaries removed along with ovarian cysts . The surgeon found one of the ovarian cysts firmly stuck to bowel . Rather than risk bowel damage she had only taken away the unattached area of that cyst. She warned me the bit that was left might form a new cyst sometime in future.

Do you also have a tube ?

Do you also have a tube

That wasn't specially mentioned, it just said both ovaries appear normal. It does feel weird in a way. I have 2 teenagers, fertility problems are all in the past. But it took 2 years to get pregnant with my first. Hoping I could have a baby despite only having one ovary was a key focus of my life for a long time.

It sounds like you had an ovarian cyst removed in the past. This is not the same as removing the whole ovary. Cysts can grow to a very large size. They can be removed, whilst the remaining ovarian tissue can be left intact. An ovarian cyst removal is not nessassarily the same as an oopherectomy.

I’d have said it’s far more likely to have been a mistake on the scans than the surgery?

I think they’re probably pretty likely to confirm they’ve removed the correct body part after surgery?

Where as like a PP has said, they’re expecting two ovaries as normal during a scan so they assume they’re both there.

Talk to your GP though, they should have the notes.

But two scans were done, so I would assume two different people looked at them?
You could contact the hospital and ask for a second opinion on the scan images I suppose.