Ovarian Calcium Deposit in Left Ovary

[tmaire]

Hi, does anyone have any Calcium Deposits in the ovaries and pain that is about a 7 or higher and constant at times?
I found out when my Ultrasound was done last week that I had a Calcium Deposit on the left Ovary
and I had a cyst on the right. I have had pain in the left side. Can this be Cancer Growth? My Dr. said that she
it was not a concern. To me it is.

Thanks.

[Annekathryn Goodman, M.D.]

HI There,
I think I answered your question on another post where you attached your question to another thread. Please take a look at "Is it ovarian cancer?" first line in thread Oct 25, 2008.

However I thought I would take a look at calcium deposits in ovaries as a general question. I did a search of both the non-medical and medical literature for this. My conclusion is that there is no information to suggest that calcium deposits seen in ovaries on ultrasound gives a diagnosis of  cancer. I suspect the general worry that people have when they hear about calcium deposits comes from the experience with mammograms and breast cancer screening.  In breasts , certain patterns of calcium seen on mammogram IS suspicious for  cancer. This does not translate to ovaries.

Calcium deposits are common in many benign tumors of the ovaries especially the most common benign tumor - a dermoid cyst or mature teratoma which can contain teeth or bone .  Calcium deposits can also be present in scar tissue especially if there has been an inflammation or infection.

There is a malignant ovarian tumor called serous papillary epithelial ovarian cancer that can contain calcium deposits called psammoma bodies.  In these cancers, psammoma bodies are present in the ascites (see my discussion of ascites in last post) and in the omentum in addition to the primary ovarian cancer.

Finally, while I did not find any statistics in humans, in the veterinary literature
calcium deposits were found in the ovaries of 87 (81·3%) of a series of 107 young female baboons. from 1975.

best wishes