2 Week Referral for Ovarian Cyst

I have just been diagnosed with a decent sized cyst on my right ovary (6.4cm largest diameter). It was described as multi- locular , thick walled and haemorrhagic and my GP has put me on a 2 week urgent referral. In his words, he isn’t overly concerned that it is anything sinister but that the gynae wait times in my area are nearly 12 months for routine referrals. He said that given the size he’s confident it’ll need to come out and the sooner the better.

In terms of symptoms, all I had was really bad cramping for 3 days just after my period. I have always had heavy, painful periods (which has been the case since I was 13 so nothing new) so no changes there. He suspected endometriosis and only sent me for the scan to be thorough, I am glad he did. The cyst seems to be an incidental finding to the pain, as if the pain was from the cyst it would have most likely have twisted or burst which isn’t the case as the pain resolved. 

I am panicking a little now, I am only 26 and this has come as a shock. I work in an industry that is allied to medicine so I know what an urgent referral means. He has referred me for a CA125 test, but I know this isn’t confirmatory. I know that a haemorrhagic cyst in someone with heavy periods is most likely to be an endometrioma but I can’t help worrying. Has anyone had any similar experiences to this? I think I just want to write my thoughts down.

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  • Just an update if anyone was interested or comes across this thread.

    My CA125 was in normal limits and I had test for additional tumour markers (sorry I’m not sure which ones) all came back normal too. I had an MRI and had an appointment with the consultant today.

    Surprisingly, my MRI had shown the cyst but also some infection and necrotic tissue on the affected ovary. It seems that my ovary may have twisted (ovarian torsion) at some point but may have resolved itself or is only twisted a bit. They can’t tell whether it is still twisted in the MRI. The consultant was surprised that I have had no symptoms such as fever or vomiting, which has lead her to believe it might have been only twisted for a short time.

    I need surgery to take the cyst out at the very least but this may also mean the ovary needs to come out if the whole thing is necrotic (again they couldn’t tell the extent of the damage from MRI). They may also need to switch to open surgery during the procedure if my ovary contains lots of puss/infection.

    I am relived that it doesn’t look like a tumour. I was very surprised that it looks like there has been a torsion due to my lack of symptoms apart from the bad cramping for a couple of days. 

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  • Just an update if anyone was interested or comes across this thread.

    My CA125 was in normal limits and I had test for additional tumour markers (sorry I’m not sure which ones) all came back normal too. I had an MRI and had an appointment with the consultant today.

    Surprisingly, my MRI had shown the cyst but also some infection and necrotic tissue on the affected ovary. It seems that my ovary may have twisted (ovarian torsion) at some point but may have resolved itself or is only twisted a bit. They can’t tell whether it is still twisted in the MRI. The consultant was surprised that I have had no symptoms such as fever or vomiting, which has lead her to believe it might have been only twisted for a short time.

    I need surgery to take the cyst out at the very least but this may also mean the ovary needs to come out if the whole thing is necrotic (again they couldn’t tell the extent of the damage from MRI). They may also need to switch to open surgery during the procedure if my ovary contains lots of puss/infection.

    I am relived that it doesn’t look like a tumour. I was very surprised that it looks like there has been a torsion due to my lack of symptoms apart from the bad cramping for a couple of days. 

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