Bartholin cyst - please anybody help me

[Herrera]

I've had a cyst for about a year which the GP's been treating with antibiotics - however a woman doctor finally referred me to the hospital a few days ago where they pointed out the ABx working because it isn't a bloody abcess so there's nothing for them to work on! The hospital were willing to marsupialise it then and there, until the consultant told me that all the clinics/treatment centres in my area have been told not to do any "elective" surgery until the patients BMI is under 30 and as my BMI is 31, they couldn't do it.

One effing point!

So the gynaecology department referred me to their weight loss service, who just called me to tell me they aren't taking any further patients at the moment. I called my GP again and she said either

1. Go private
2. Lose weight (two sodding stone)
3. Wait until it gets infected (!) then go back

I was also told at the gynaecology dept that the waiting list is up to six months for day surgery. So basically, wait until I've lost two stone/got infected then been referred then waited another six months I've got to live with it. It's the size of a sodding golf ball and getting worse! I'm getting batted from one person to another and they're all saying no, I don't know what the hell to do except cry! Please anyone help!

I had one.
Have you tried a sitz bath?
Epsom salts in water, either but in the bath repeatedly or use the sitz bath which goes on the toilet seat for you to sit on with your affected area in the Epsom salt water...
Mine went away after I did this for a week or so.
God was it painful.

I've been doing the hot compress with Epsom salt and a face cloth two or three times a day, I've heard tea tree oil helps but doesn't seem to be making any difference :/ The compress works for a couple of hours and it's drained a tiny bit before, I never thought I'd be so happy to see pus! 😂

Also can someone explain to me what marsupialisation means in layman's terms? All I can find is that they cut a hole and stitch it open - even the gynae made it sound like I'd have a second permanent slit with a f-load of scars

You poor thing. I've been there but never bad enough to require the procedure so you have my full sympathy.

It's basically as you say, slice, temp stitch it so it's open and they insert a tiny catheter to drain the fluid then close it back up. Sounds horrific but does work and should prevent further infection.

How is it today? I know it's been a few days since you posted

Is it painful? I have one that I can manage to squeeze and drain myself. It's been there for years, hasn't caused me any problems so far.

Can you bring it to a head and drain it?

It's still there, it doesn't hurt but it's so fxcking uncomfortable :/ it's so bulky I can feel it through my knickers

@getyourfreakon @imalmostthere I can't get it up to a head, it feels like it's too big to get to that point. It's crossed my mind several times now to stab it with a safety pin or something but I've seen too many boards saying for the love of god don't!

Is going private not an option? That’s what I’d be looking into by now.

Hang on, surely you don't need to lose 2 stone to lose 1 point BMI? Can you not just lose a few pounds?

I have had one that was cut out and currently have one that is not infected but feels bulky and nothing clears it up so I really feel for you

Sorry for being crap at answering, I'm just a bit garbage at this

It won't come to a head at all, I've been doing the epsom salt bath/compress, tea tree oil, hot water and nothing is helping. It goes down a tiny bit for about an hour then comes back again. Every time I have a period now I get thrush and it's wearing me down so much. I'm so tired of it and the doctors are just refusing to even think about surgery until that one BMI point is gone. I spoke to my GP today and he said he'd try to get the gynae unit at the local hospital to expedite(?) the surgery, but even then the waiting list is still looooooong. Again I'm so so tempted to just get in with a pin or something