Great news for you! I know your mind is at ease!
Hi to you both,
Thanks so much for the post...I went and it turned out to be a sebaceous cyst...so nothing serious to worry about! I wish you all the best with your battles
I also know how it feel to be nervous about something going on in your body! It is scary! I agree with hypervigilante, it could be a number of things, most being not too serious. The bump on your outer labia does not sound like an ingrown hair, I have had those and they are painful, especially in a tender spot as that. Try not to worry, easier said than done! At least you have an appointment tomorrow, you will find out soon what is going on. Try not to get yourself worked up as I have done, stress is not good for your body and tends to make some pain worse! Let us know how it goes tomorrow, please! Thinking of you.
I know very well how it feels to be nervous about a medical appointment, but please try not to worry. Your symptoms could be any of a number of things, and only a tiny handful of the possibilities would be anything serious. Your doctor will know what to do, and you've done the right thing by going in to have things checked out. Let us know how things go!
Hi all,
I have an appt with the docs tomorrow but im terrified of what she will tell me so thought i could get an opinion from you guys first...
Just over 2 weeks ago I found a bump on my outer labia, it wasn't painful, itchy and I would not have noticed it unless I was doing a check. I immediately panicked but as it presented no pain or other symptoms I figured it could be an ingrown hair/something minor. Bear in mind I found it a day after a long-distance bike ride. A few days later I started experiencing a mild, dull intermittent pain in the lower back, right side of pelvic area and some pain radiating down my right leg, mostly located at the back of my upper thigh. This pain has been on-and-off since that time, and occassionally passes onto the front right side i.e.where my ovary may be? I was very paranoid that I had contracted herpes but the lump is beneath the skin and is not filled with any fluid, does not hurt or itch.
Any ideas ladies??
Thanks a lot!
I never thought of the cancer that way. If it was cancer I'd be dead by now, too! Or I would have other symptoms than just the pain. "Just" the pain? Funny how that sounds! I am glad I am having surgery, too. It just doesn't seem to be moving along as fast as I would like to to be! Take Care!
Kayla, thanks for describing your pain - it reassures me to see how similar our episodes are. I know cysts can cause pain, but have never read any descriptions of the quality or quantity, and have wondered if mine was normal (or, normal for dermoids.) When I first started looking up dermoid cysts online, I kept finding them described as "painless" ... ?!?!?!? Ha! Not mine, even if I've been fortunate to stay in the mild/moderate range.
The cancer thing has been on my mind a lot too, especially now that I know it's grown in two years, but I keep telling myself that after having symptoms this long, I'd be dead by now if it were anything fatal.
I'm glad you're having surgery - it sounds like you're really suffering! Keep us posted on how things go! :)
It is okay, I will gladly listen to ayone's experience regarding this dermoid cyst! LOL! First I want to say, sheba968, between you and your husband those little girls are meant to be. Congratulations! I understand about finding a good doctor,too. Unfortunately, I am in not that position. My husband works very hard at a construction company that does not offer insurance! I have to go to a clinic that is about 60 miles away from where we live, because that is where the Ob-Gyn's are located. We have the same clinic locally but no Ob-Gyns are there! They are going to remove my cyst, but I am in pain alot until the surgery happens. It makes me think my cyst is growing pretty fast. I have seen the Drs. twice(the ones out of town) but because I saw a different Dr. each time, I feel they do not really know me. They know me from reading my charts!!!
Hypervigilant, I go through the ovulation pain, too! I'll go for days and not feel any pain, then bam! Like you said sometimes quick little twinges and other times so much pressure and pain it is almost unbearable. Even when I am not ovulating, I experience pain. I never know what type of day I am going to wake up to. The last few days have been miserable. It really helps to get on here and talk about it! I have a hard time making plans, I have applied for jobs lately but deep down inside sometimes I hope they do not call me. I am afraid I will have to call in too much and end up being fired anyway. I know that almost all cysts are benign, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking the worst! Both of my parents died from cancer, to be honest, that scares the hell out of me! It has been going on for so long, when I look back, it is really doing a job on my mental state, too! Thanks Ladies for listening and commenting back!!!!!!!
Hi. In regards to your questions, prior to my first pregnancy, I really had no symptoms of a dermoid cyst. Once I got pregnant was when I started with the pain on my left side. Before the miscarriage this was brushed off. It wasn't until I lost the baby that they found my dermoid. After the miscarriage my dermoid was not really all that large (don't remember the specifics) and my doctor was a jerk. When I went back for post -op appointment, I told him I was in agony on my left side, and wanted a sonogram. Sometimes it hurt to stand up straight. He told me I was just upset about losing the baby, and that "little thing" couldn't thing could not possibly be causing me all of that pain. He offered me anti depressents. I actually listened to him for a while, until I could not stand it anymore. I went to specialist. I was scanned. In the span of 3 months my dermoid had grown to the size of an orange. This doctor explained that this dermoid had fed off of the hcg from my pregnancy, literally starving the baby, so it could grow and cause me lots of PAIN. Our ovaries are normally the size of an almond. Mine was the of an orange. I guess it wasn't in my head in my head after all. Even though I lost that ovary I went on to have two beautiful little girls, and my husband is a testicular cancer surviver. with one testicle. What a pair we make! He was supposed to be sterile after his treatments. I guess these little girls were supposed to be here. Whenever I here anyone tell me they have a dermoid cyst, I personally feel they should be removed. My doctor told me that I not had mine removed it would have ruptured soon, and had I not received treatment after that I could have died. They can be serious. Good luck in what you decide to do. Finding a good doctor is key.
Oops - Sheba, I've just realized that your "tell all" was meant for Sheba, not me. Sorry! But I'd still be interested in your experiences with pain if you're willing to share.
Sheba and Kayla, thanks for sharing your stories. I'm so sorry about your miscarriages. I've had a couple friends experience them, and can see how devastating it is.
Sheba, I will most likely have it removed unless the OBGYN I'm seeing next month strongly advises against it for some reason. Just knowing that it has grown in 2 years, even if not very much, makes me nervous. I certainly don't want to wait until it's too big to be removed laparoscopically. I haven't thought much about losing the ovary at this point, but I'll deal with that when and if it becomes an issue. I'm not married, have no prospects, and am approaching 40, so whether I have one ovary or two or zero is kind of a moot point.
Kayla, there's not much to tell, but I'll do my best! :) I first noticed pain when I was about 23 years old - just little occasional twinges that came and went so fast that by the time I could flinch in reaction, the pain would already be gone. It wasn't necessarily related to my cycle, but it seemed right where my ovary should be, which made me nervous. It's hard to describe how the pain has developed and changed over the years because it's been so gradual. I've gone for weeks and months without feeling anything, and then it would kick in again, and I'd go "Oh that's right ... there's that pain again." Sometimes ovulation has been extremely painful, as if acid or little nails were being let loose into my abdomen - ouch! Sometimes the pain lasts through a cycle or two, and then is gone. Sometimes it's dull, and sometime sharp. It seems less focused now, though - it's still definitely ovary related, but within the past couple of years it's started radiating to my hip and leg a bit too. This makes me think it's grown enough to press on a nerve somewhere. I've been lucky that it's never been horribly painful - the worst of the ovulation episodes were probably a 6 on the scale of 1 to 10 - but I can go for weeks at a time just hanging at a 1, which is what's going on now. I think that nasty ultrasound wand aggravated things - ugh!
As far as medical treatment goes, I have been mentioning the right sided pain during annual exams almost from the beginning, and neither my current doctor nor my former one seemed to think it was any big deal. Muscle spasms, ovulation, and the normal effects of aging were all blamed as culprits. The pain hasn't been horrible enough to push me over the edge, just annoying, so I accepted those explanations and was just happy not to be sent for any invasive tests or surgery. And since it's evidently too small to be felt on manual exam, even as recently as 3 weeks ago, there was no particular reason for the doctors to suspect anything like this. I really think that had it not been for the ultrasound to diagnose the fibroid, I might have gone through life with this thing growing in me and never had any idea.
Sounds like you've had way more tests than I have. If I may ask, was the internal ultrasound pretty painful? When the tech was scanning the cystic ovary, she asked if it was tender, and I had to say it certainly was. The other side wasn't nearly as bad.
When I read your post, wow, it all makes sense to me now. I have been having more and more painful periods. I chalked it up to my age, 44. I had a miscarriage in Aug. '07. I had a miscarriage a very long time ago, also. The miscarriage I had last year was worse than going through labor. The Dr, at the ER did a pelvic ultrasound just to see if the fetus was viable or not. No mention of a cyst! I kept on having severe periods to the point of ER visits once every two months or so. No one could tell me anything specific! When I went BACK to the ER, just a few weeks ago, I had a Dr. that actually wanted to find out what was wrong with me. He did a CT scan, pelvic ultrasound, X-Rays, EKGS, etc..... It was determined that I have a dermoid cyst on my right ovary. It is the most painful thing I have ever went through in my life. The strongest pain meds they give me are Ibuprofen! What a joke! I am scheduled to have a pre-surgery consultation on July 25th. I am so sick of dealing with this pain, I hurt right now! Please relate your dermoid removal experience with me! Tell all! Thanks! Leslie
I had a dermoid cyst on my ovary that I never knew I had. In the meantime I got pregnant, and wound up losing the baby at 11 wks. (The dermoid was feeding off of the hcg hormones from the pregnancy and started growing out of control, causing me to miscarry. When I had the the dermoid removed it was the size of an orange, and they could not separate the blood supply from the cyst and my ovary, so I wound up losing it. The point of my story is, had I known about the dermoid cyst before the pregnancy, and had it removed, I would have had that baby, and I would have two ovaries today. My advice to you is to look into having it removed. If and when they decide to start growing it can happen very fast, and is very painful. Good luck you.
I forgot to mention that the US also revealed a simple cyst, approximately 2 cm. in each dimension. But I'm not worried about that, because I think that one could be a normal ovulation cyst. Am I right?