Urgent referral for Ovarian Cysts

[BeBraveAndBeKind]

I posted this in Women's Health on friday but didn't get any responses. I'm hoping general health might have a bit more traffic.

I went to the doctors with a stabbing abdominal pain on 27th June. The nurse practitioner thought it might be a fibroid and referred me for blood tests and ultrasound.

I had the ultrasound on 7th July and spoke to the doctor about the results on the 8th. She said that there is a small fibroid but they can also see what they think is a cyst on my right ovary and thinks that a gynaecology referral is a good idea and, as a routine part of that referral, she wanted me to have a blood test for Ovarian tumours (which I did on Friday 10th).

When I got back from getting the bloods done, there was a letter from my surgery saying that an urgent referral has been requested and someone from the hospital will call me to make an appointment.

I thought they'd just refer me and I'd get an appointment through in due course so the tone and speed of the letter has spooked me a bit compared to the casual discussion I had with the doctor.

Has anyone else this for cysts? I'm panicking a bit that they actually strongly suspect Ovarian cancer but aren't saying so.

Phone the surgery and ask to speak to a doctor.

Easier said than done, but try not to worry.

Awww try not to worry. I was reading up on these as I wondered if the pulling/tugging sensation I had was due to a cyst.

I googled for about an hour. It was saying like with any mass/lump etc they will want to make sure it’s not cancerous. If it is then they’ll want to get it removed ASAP that’s why they rush. (Quite right too)

Occasionally the cyst can be cancerous but most of them are harmless and benign but until they know for sure they have to treat it as suspect I assume.

Phone the surgery OP because they might be able to reassure you and save you all this worry. Hope you’re ok. Let us know.

Better to ask for a GP phone call rather than guessing at why.

From you description sounds like they sent the "urgent" request before the blood results so you maybe putting 2+2=5

Hi OP, I had something very similar, and it's 100% standard to get an urgent cancer referral (to be seen within 2 weeks), so that they can rule out ovarian cancer as a possibility before deciding what treatment to go ahead with. I doubt they suspect anything at this stage, they just need to get you checked, so try not to panic - I know it's not easy!

Mine was just an ovarian cyst which went away of its own accord, but if it had been cancer, then as the oncology nurse explained, getting it checked out as fast as possible would have been the best thing, as the sooner its detected the better the outcome, and the more options for treatment.

I'm sure it'll be fine (when I told my girlfriends about how terrified I was, they all said they'd had something similar happen to them), so chin up, and let us know how you get on.

Thank you all for your responses. I'm trying not to worry but it's hard to stay calm. It's reassuring to hear that others have had the same experience though and it's a routine approach.

I've just had a call from the hospital booking office offering me a cancellation for tomorrow morning so not much longer to wait.

That's good, get it over and done with, best of luck lovely, will be keeping my fingers crossed for you xxx

The appointment was fine, no tumour thankfully. I have a large fibroid and aa large cyst so they've said they'll refer for surgery and I can choose between just having the ovary removed or a full hysterectomy and get it all done in one go. I'll have to do a bit of reading and see which is the best option.