Ovarian Cyst in Pregnancy

[BarbieQueue]

I am posting this as a little place for reassurance for anyone who has the same or similar experience to me.

On an early pregnancy scan then found a 4cm cyst on one of my ovaries. They told me not to worry about it and they usually disappear on their own and cause no problems.

Fast forwards to my 20 week scan, the sonographer moves over to my ovary to check and she went really quiet. It had grown to 10cm!! She told me to down to the day clinic where I will see a doctor who will asses the images.
At this point they seemed a little concerned.

The doctor bluntly told me he doesn’t actually know what it was & couldn’t be certain so referred me to a multi-discipline team. They then reviewed the image and I got a call to say they’re not sure either so they would like an urgent MRI doing…at this point I really started to panic and asked the question “do they think it’s cancer?” - the doctor gave me statistics such as ‘it’s unlikely given your age and it would be rare in pregnancy but couldn’t rule it out’.

Fast forward another week later, I got a call to say it’s definitely a cysts, they’re still unsure what kind (dermoid, fluid filled, simple, complex) but it’s a growth and a non cancerous one at that. The doctor did explain to me that cysts are extremely common on the ovaries and when pregnant the hormones can surge the growth of these and majority of the time it turns out to be harmless but they like to do all these checks to be 100%. Also what I learnt was even if they’re 99% certain it’s a cysts they won’t tell you that just because of that 1% chance. They use phrases such as it’s ‘looking like’ or ‘likely’ or ‘leaning towards’.

If you are told you have one in pregnancy and have health anxiety like me, please DONT Google, it only feeds the anxiety! I hope this post provides reassurance for anyone who needs it :-)

Thank you so much for this post. Just had a private early reassurance scan and been told I’ve got two joint fluid filled cysts measuring just under 9cm at 6+1. Now have all the anxiety and don’t even have a midwife yet so this has helped!

how are you getting on now? X

@PBandJs - oh bless you, it’s always nerve wracking when they spot any growth but please try not to worry (easier said than done, I know).

if it’s fluid filled this is reassuring. They will likely monitor them throughout your pregnancy for the growth and check they’re not causing you any discomfort, but they are 100% harmless to baby.

I am absolutely fine and had no issues up until a couple of weeks ago when I was doubled over in pain…coming from the ovary area…went to the hospital and they believe the cyst had ruptured. I have a scan next week at the hospital to confirm this and to make sure it’s not in the way of the babies exit as I’m almost 9 month now! I paid for a private growth scan and asked them to do a quick check and it’s halved in size so deffo likely to have ruptured.

xx

Hi both - Its worrying having a cyst isn’t it and Google doesn’t help!
I had a 15cm dermoid cyst which we only found out about when I had a scan when having a miscarriage at 11 weeks. I was assured that it doesn’t affect pregnancies but once the miscarriage was over I was taken into surgery for it to be removed but they also removed my left ovary at the same time. I’ve since had a new dermoid grow (currently at 5cm) on the right ovary, the consultant recommended getting pregnant so it can be removed during a C-section if needed and assured me that if anything a pregnancy can stop the cyst from growing. I’m now 4 weeks pregnant and worried about the dermoid rupturing if we can finally progress past 12 weeks. I am also taking Hcg injection as had 3 miscarriages and one side effect is ovarian cyst rupture apparently so that’s worrying!

hopefully your scan goes well @BarbieQueue x

@BarbieQueue oh no that sounds horrible! Can’t imagine the pain of that. Hopefully now if it’s smaller it won’t get in the way of baby exiting 🤞🏼I’ve told my midwives about it but because I’m so early I suspect I won’t hear anything for a while. Hoping they might scan me early just to check it and get more info. They did say on the private scan that it had no colour flow signals, which I’ve since googled and sounds good because it means it isn’t malignant.

@LookingForOurRainbow I’m so sorry for your loss and having to remove your ovary. It’s good to hear that pregnancy can halt the growth. fingers crossed this new one stays stable for you 🤞🏼
google really is the enemy especially as most of the posts seem to be about small functional cysts rather than larger ones.