Potential ovarian cysts?

[MayQueen88]

I’m 36 years old and it’s safe to say my health anxiety has been through the roof these past few weeks. 4 weeks ago, completely out of the blue, I was unable to urinate properly and fully empty my bladder. At first I thought it was a UTI, so got tested and they found nothing. However I still wasn’t peeing properly. I had no pain, no blood, no burning when I did go. I had no urgency to go, I’d go to the loo even if I didn’t feel like I needed to and just sat for 10 minutes while a couple of trickles happened.

Lo and behold, I ran straight to google. Just to crank up that anxiety more! I thought it may be urinary retention. I was self diagnosing everything whilst waiting for a GP appointment. He referred me for bloods. When waiting for the bloods appointment, I started feeling pain, mainly on the left side, like an intermittent burning pain. All of a sudden I had the need to pee and had the longest pee I had in ages. I nearly cried with relief. And it’s been fine since. The best I’ve been peeing in ages actually. However I’ve still had slight discomfort across my pelvis and abdomen since. Not bad that it stops me doing anything, and not necessarily painful. But it’s just there. I have no bloating at all either. Could this have been a large cyst that has burst? And it’s just taking a bit longer to recover? I’ve suffered with cysts in the past, mainly asymptomatic. The last ultrasound I had confirmed I had a couple of cysts on each ovary. That ultrasound was 7 years ago. My doctor has referred me to have another one. I had a full blood count done a week ago which was all good. They also did the CA 125 test which came back as a level of 10.

I suppose the ultrasound will be more concrete as to what’s going on. I just think having this slight on/off pain is playing on my mind a bit.

Can I follow this please.

Do you have a date for your ultrasound?

Of course! No I’m still waiting. It’s weird because I’m pain free today but sure it’ll return.

Were you constipated? That can give you urinary retention.
Was it the relief of getting a Dr's appointment that potentially made you relax and be able to go?
I assume you aren't pregnant?
Surely a cyst would have to be very large, grapefruit sized, to actually put that much pressure on your bladder?
If the retention reoccurs, you can try trickling warm (no hot!) water over your vulva. Sometimes, the sensation can make you go.
I had a 5cm cyst, randomly found on an Ultrasound for something else. They rescanned 6 weeks later and it had gone. No pain, no urinary retention etc.

About a year later, I had a strange episode where I'd opened my bowels, then had a terrible, 1 sided pelvic pain. Standing, squatting, lying in bed did nothing for the pain. I couldn't get relief at all and was about to call an ambulance. After 15mins, it started to ease. I have no idea, but am guessing that was a cyst. I don't have PCOS or other gynae issues and have neve had it since.

Are you getting any support for your anxiety?

I had a 4cm cyst on each ovary which were just ‘simple cysts’ and never went away, they were harmless but needed to be monitored to make sure they didn’t change. They sometimes caused me pain and sex could be painful.

Nope wasn’t constipated. That’s something that’s been pretty great for me. The blood results made me relax. The only thing that showed up was high RBC but that seemed to be because I was pretty dehydrated because I was scheduling when to drink water as to not put too much pressure on my bladder when I couldn’t empty it properly so I wasn’t drinking enough.

I’m not pregnant, no. What I forgot to mention in the original post is that twice out of the past 8 menstrual cycles, my period has been like 5 days late. But when it did arrive, it wasn’t heavier or lighter than normal, and it lasted the usual 4 days which is normal for me. I’m due on today actually but haven’t the usual signs that I’ll come on soon.

That’s what I was thinking about the cyst size. God knows what it was stopping me from peeing but maybe an ultrasound can shed more light!

I was told I had PCOS in my early 20s. It’s been monitored on and off over the years but I haven’t had anything checked so maybe the time is now to get it checked again.

I haven’t really touched upon my anxiety to my GP. I was diagnosed with epilepsy when I was 17 after suffering from seizures which seemed to appear out of thin air. MRI scan years later determined an ‘early life insult’ to the left side of my brain. So I think the health anxiety stems from the fear of experiencing another seizure because they’re pretty under control now because of medication. Haven’t had one since December 2022 and the previous one to that was 5 years before.

Thanks so much for your advice!

May I ask if you’re still experiencing pain/cyst symptoms?

I have had a large cyst burst.

they have all sorts of toxins etc inside them which then wash out into your abdominal cavity. The pain was beyond belief and lasted for several days.

i was on holiday in turkey and wound up on a drip in a Turkish hospital.

So sorry you had to go through that, it sounds absolutely awful.

How have you been since? Have you ever needed to be monitored to see if any more cysts have appeared?

I had a couple of laparoscopies after that (for endo)

no
other cysts.

Another though op could be a kidney stone. Generally, they cause an excruciating pain in the left or right flank area (just above the waist band), but I'm trying to think what else would cause urinary retention like that- other than infections, medications etc.

I was thinking it could be that as well. But as you said, I haven’t felt any excruciating pain. Hopefully the ultrasound will explain more!