Ovarian cysts and operations during pregnancy - any experience of either?

[Plateofcrumbs]

I'm 9 weeks pregnant and just had an early scan which revealed I have some large ovarian cysts. I'm seeing a consultant on Monday but his initial opinion is that they will want to operate to remove them.

Obviously a bit panicked by the idea of having to have such an operation during the pregnancy.

Anyone experienced anything similar?

Hi, I had the same when I was pregnant with my DS. Everything was fine. The recovery time was similar to a c section as was the incision. They should advise you of the risks of having a general anaesthetic while pregnant but they have to do this. I was also seen by the consultant at the antenatal clinic on the run up to my son's birth but this was just a precautionary measure. Everything went ok but I can understand your worry as I felt the same. My son is 8 now and was a perfectly healthy baby. HTH

I have known a few women have said operation to remove cysts with no complications.

I've had surgery in pregnancy before - two spinals (so awake) for stitch-related which were fine. I also had a full scale laparotomy (abdomen fully opened up as with a c-section) to have a permanent stitch put in at 13 weeks. I was out for an hour. Baby was fine and is currently trashing the living room although I won't deny I was nervous beforehand! Apparently they go to sleep too..

A lady on a due date forum I am on elsewhere recently had surgery to remove cancer at 22 weeks. She was under for over 8 hours which feels insane. Her little girl is still doing fine several weeks later!

You do still get morphine

Thank you both, that is reassuring!

jakeypeg - were they able to do it without removing an ovary? My scan showed one ovary riddled with cysts and the other was completely AWOL (hopefully it's in there somewhere but sonographer said the two ovaries could be stuck together). The thought of losing one ovary is scary, but losing both...

And for both of you - did the operations mean you then had to have c-sections for the birth?

All questions I can ask the consultant of course but it's good to hear other people's experiences.

Ask the consultant to talk you through ALL of the options.

You can have it removed surgically, which is permanent, so once done you don't have to worry about it, but there is the small risk to baby due to anaesthetic.

You can have the fluid drained from the cyst under local, which isn't always successful or permanent, but if successful will allow a vaginal birth at least.

You can leave it alone and observe which will mean a lot of scans and a c-section. This is the riskiest choice as twisting or rupture of cyst needs emergency surgery and puts you both at risk.

I had mine drained under ultrasound guidance as it was too big for a simple surgery and thankfully it was easily accessible. It was as much as I was comfortable with while pregnant.

Mine was successful and I managed to have a vaginal birth with no problems. There is the possibility it could refill though, which would mean surgery in future.

Oh x-post. Sorry. Multiple cysts most likely need surgery.

I also had this - when pregnant with DS1, I had some bleeding early on (6 weeks or so). Thinking the worst I went for a scan at the EPU and was told the baby was fine but that I had cysts on both ovaries and that it was one of them causing the bleeding.

One side was bigger than the other so it was monitored by scans and was shown to be growing very quickly - at 12 weeks pregnant it twisted/bled and I collapsed.

I was admitted to hospital and the pain was controlled with morphine until 19 weeks where the pain got unmanageable (morphine dose would have to be too high for baby) and the cyst was removed, and as it had destroyed my ovary and fallopian tube, they went too.

Rest of pregnancy went fine and DS1 was born normally - induced at 40+1 due to SPD but it was a good as they go! labour

Do you know what sort of cysts they are? If they are fluid filled the plan of action might be different than if they are 'solid' - mine were dermoid (don't google images that is the tip I'll give you!)

Teaandcake- what an ordeal! Amazing after all of that to have a normal birth. Were you in hospital for 5 weeks in pain? Why didn't they remove the cyst earlier on?

The notes say they suspect mine are endometrioma (known as 'chocolate cysts' apparently - how delightful!) so fluid filled I believe.

I was in and out of hospital - on morphine in hospital and on codeine at home, weekly consultant appointments from discovery of the cyst to birth and at 6 weeks post birth too.

They didn't remove it straight away because they wanted the pregnancy to get to the 2nd trimester and more 'established' before they operated so they didn't disturb the baby and cause a miscarriage, it was a weekly balancing act really of being in pain vs strong drugs going into the babys system vs the risk of surgery at that stage of pregnancy

Like I said earlier, I did have an ovary (and Fallopian tube removed) but it didn't cause any problems getting pg with DS2 like I suspected it might

I also have cysts on the remaining ovary so have to have 3-monthly scans and consultant appointments to check development on those - consultant wants to operate to remove them but as there is a chance the ovary may have to be removed on that side too, I want to wait before I give up the chance of a possible DC3 and enter menopause/hrt at only 26

Thanks for that Teaandcake - and good luck with the on-going treatment. x

I only had one cyst ( the size of a baby's head apparently) . It was removed because of the pain I was in. I was lucky not to lose my ovary but I was told it was a possibility. I did have a normal vaginal birth with my son. In fact he arrived so quickly he was very nearly born in front of all the visitors waiting to get in the ward. Your consultant should run through all the options with you so you have a better understanding of what will happen in your case.

Thanks jakeypeg. Is helpful to know what other people have been through. Have lots of questions for consultant now.

I had to have a c-section but that was due to the nature of the surgery I had which was creating a new cervix by tying a bit of ribbon around the bottom of my uterus - it was kind of the point that baby would have no other exit! I have no clue about ovarian surgery though, but it seems like others do

Good luck with your choices and pregnancy!

If you want to ask anything else Plate even after you meet with your consultant (if you're like me and get home and think it"oh I forgot to ask that!") then feel free to pm me, hopefully this thread has shown that other people have been there and the babies are fine (can hear DS1 snoring as I type!) but if you wanted to ask anything else more specific (healing times or scar treatment afterwards etc) then I don't mind.
Good luck, Im sure it'll bring fine

Thank you, really appreciate that!