Small cyst found in baby’s abdomen at 20 week scan... should I be as worried as I am?!

[mumtobe133]

Hi all,

My first time posting here, but I’m a bit worried and hoping someone who has experienced something similar could put my mind at ease!

I’m pregnant with my first baby, had my 20 week anomaly scan yesterday. So far all scans/tests have come back completely normal; at yesterday’s scan the sonographer told me everything was fine with the baby apart from a small 2cm cyst in his abdomen, and she had no clue what it was. She wanted to refer me straight to fetal medicine for scans/tests that day, but eventually two midwives came to speak to me and said you do need an extra scan, but it won’t be today and unlike the sonographer, they didn’t seem overly worried at all which did put my mind at ease. The report I’ve been given says that every other organ, limb etc appears normal, and funnily enough the cord insertion site, that they’re saying the cyst is close to, has been listed as normal too.

I guess my question is: has anyone else experienced anything similar, and if everything else seemed normal on the scan, am I just getting myself overly worked up about something that could just resolve itself? I’m sick with worry waiting for our appointment with fetal medicine and have managed to convince myself that they’re going to find a long list of problems when we go to see them!

Thank you for reading!

Hi did you find out anymore about the baby’s cyst? My daughter has been told the same today .
Just such a worry.

Hey! I’m so sorry to hear your daughter is going through the same, it’s such a scary thing to find out when you expect baby to be perfectly fine.

I went for my follow up scan with fetal medicine 2 days after my initial one - the cyst is definitely there but they’ve decided it’s not near the umbilical cord as originally suspected. The consultant did a veryyy thorough scan of the baby and reassured me that there are no other anomalies, which he said was a really good sign. He also said the cyst is really small and he mostly expects it to resolve on its own, but because he couldn’t tell exactly where it was in baby’s abdomen, he can’t completely rule out that there might be an underlying genetic issue!

That was a little worrying to hear and I was offered the amnio test, I think mainly for my own peace of mind, but I can’t stress enough how adamant the consultant was that he wasn’t too worried at all. He said they want to scan again in 2 weeks to check the cyst again, so I took it as a good sign that they’re not in a rush to get me straight back in!

Is your daughter booked in for a follow up scan? If so I really hope that puts her mind at ease - it’s been 6 days since mine and I do feel much better now!

If you have any other questions though please private message me! I know exactly how your daughter must be feeling and I think it helps if you have someone to talk to who’s going through the same thing x

Hello I had a similar experience a couple of years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter
In our 12 week scan they saw a (relatively) large cyst in the abdominal region, sonographer wasn't able to tell us what it was as the baby was simply too small. We had an agonising 4 week wait before we were seen by her again, this time the cyst was still there but she was able to see it wasn't attached to any of the baby's organs and hasn't grown.
We were also referred to Kings who were fantastic. Saw a consultant there who put our minds at ease and said he was very confident it would resolve itself which it did.
A happy ending for us, they did do some checks on dd a few weeks after she was born and thankfully there was no sign of the cyst
Happy to answer any questions you may have xx

Do you know the sec of the baby?

*sex 🙄

Aww that’s so lovely to hear that you had good news and your little girl is okay!

We’re having a boy - I made them triple check as I’d read that ovarian cysts are quite common but they confirmed he’s a boy so it’s not that! 😂 I think they’ve also told us it’s not attached to any organs but they just can’t say for definite where it is in his tummy which is why they can’t rule anything out just yet!

If I have any questions that come to mind I might message you if that’s okay, it’s just so helpful to hear off other people who’ve had such similar experiences! xx

Ahh yeah that's why I asked about the sex because of the ovarian cysts i read about

Did you decline the amino? X

I’m holding back on the amnio at the moment, I have my next scan in a week so they said if I want it then they can just do it after the scan, so I’ll just see what happens then.

Hope you don’t mind me asking and you don’t have to answer but were you offered an amnio? I was just a bit thrown that the doctor was so sure everything will be fine but then offered me it! x

No I was never offered one. I asked the screening midwife after my first scan and she said to wait and see what happened in the next scan. Then that went well and after I was seen at Kings they seemed pretty confident everything was okay so it wasn't mentioned again
I hope all goes well at your next scan. When is it? Such a stressful and anxious time, thinking of you x

That’s interesting to hear! The doctor who offered it to me was very clear on the fact he was confident this would resolve itself but that we might want to rule anything out, I think he said he had to offer it to us because the risk of miscarriage was lower than the chance that baby might have a genetic condition, but even the chances of that are quite low!

It’s so stressful, I was so lucky to have had a fairly easy pregnancy up to now and now I’m so aware of all the things that could go wrong! My next scan is on Wednesday so fingers crossed all goes well, thank you for being so reassuring though, it’s always nice to hear someone similar has experienced the same and been okay in the end! x

thanks for sharing these stories, it has made me feel less alone. I'm totally new here and literally experiencing the same thing as of last week when 12 week dating scan showed up an abdominal cyst. Similar story to OP in that consultant was not hugely worried but will have to wait another 3 weeks to see what it looks like at 16 weeks and get some blood tests back. Difficult not to imagine the worst and the waiting is horrendous. Sending lots of love and good luck for your scan - I hope you are able to update x

@catsdontgiveafck I’m so sorry to hear you’re going through the same thing! I think it’s crazy that there’s 3 people on this thread been told the same thing this past week, but there’s hardly any info on the internet! I know it’s so much easier said than done but I think we just have to stay positive and remember that in both cases the consultants weren’t overly worried - it can be so easy to just focus on the worst case scenario instead though!

I’ll keep you updated where I can to hopefully provide you some reassurance as I’m a bit further down the road than you are. Sending you lots of love though and if you need anyone to talk to please feel free to message me, nothing worse than feeling a bit alone when dealing with these things! x

Hello all! Just a quick update to hopefully give you all some reassurance

I had my follow up scan today, and was given good news! The cyst is still there but hasn’t changed, and they do not think it’s linked to a chromosome disorder as baby is growing really well and everything else is normal. They said worst case scenario is he will need a little op when he’s born but they’re really not worried at all.

Really hope you all get good results with your scans/tests and as always if anyone has any questions please just send me a message! I’m always happy to help as I know just how awful it is waiting for news. Sending you all lots of love and good luck x

That's amazing news!! So pleased for you.
My midwife actually said to me that things like these cysts are being identified more nowadays because technology is getting better and better. Chances are they have always been quite usual but we have been none the wiser because they weren't seen on ultrasounds and eventually just resolved by themselves xx

@heyduggeemyhero thank you so much! And thank you for sharing your story, it was so reassuring and stopped me going mad with worry 😂 yes I thought the same about them being spotted more often nowadays! I’m obviously grateful it was picked up early but it’s caused 2 weeks of what will hopefully be pointless worrying 😂 xx

Ahh I'm so pleased for you @mumtobe133 ! that's fantastic news and I hope you can rest easy (as much as possible) now. Thank you for sharing. I've got a couple more weeks to wait (aghhhhhhhh) but it's nice to have some positivity in the mean time :)

Hey @mumtobe133 just wondering how your LO got on and if all was OK? I am in the same situ at the moment and can’t find much online :( x

@alwaysseekingcomfort hi! So so sorry to hear you’re going through the same situation, it’s such a scary time! Hope this is some reassurance to you, my LO was absolutely fine in the end :) at my 36 week scan they said the cyst had completely disappeared, then when he was a few days old he had an X ray to confirm this and they found nothing. I was the same and all I could find online were worst case scenarios but after a few scans my mind was put at ease! I’m really hoping for the same outcome for you and your LO x

I was in the same boat. Had scans every 4 weeks and it was a j shaped structure. It was visible until 36 weeks then they couldn't see it. Baby was born and fine. Had to have paediatrician at the birth and surgeons ready as they thought baby may need bowel reconstruction. Baby had ultrasound scan at 6 weeks and they saw some sluge in gallbladder which was common enough apparently. Now a healthy 5 year old. Very negative experience from diagnosis of cyst as foetal medicine couldn't give any reassurance but all fine in end phew

@mumtobe133 thanks so much for the reply! Soooo glad to hear your LO was Ok in the end!!! I mean I don’t see my LO’s cyst disappearing before birth as at each scan it’s growing (not massive, but still growing)… I’m just sooo worried about the uncertainty that FM are giving still. And no reassurance that it’s not anything genetic or chromosomal! But not long and she’ll be here so I suppose we’ll find out soon enough! X

@G3mmwf thanks for your reply!!! It really does help as feel so alone and lost with this as not much online at all so nice to hear others that have been through it! J shaped? Interesting! Ours is just a circle shape I believe. So assume they thought yours was located in the bowels? We have an MRI next week which FM have arranged as they hope it will tell the exact location of the cyst so the peadatric surgeons are more prepared. We’ve also been having scans every 4weeks. But am over the moon your LO is now a healthy 5yr old! Yes is such a negative experience isn’t it :( really wasn’t expecting this to be what it would be like for my first. X