Surgery to remove dermoid cyst during pregnancy

I am 15 Weeks pregnant and this is my first pregnancy. I have recently found out that I have a 6.5cm dermoid cyst on my Left ovary. I am scheduled for surgery on 3/2/07. I am really scared. I have been serching all over the internet for other womens stories but have not been able to find much about women who have had this surgery while pregnant. My doctor did not really want to talk about it at my last appt. I think she did not want to scare me before the surgery. I will go back to her on 2/22/07 and she will tell me all about the surgery. In the mean time I am going crazy. I don't know if the surgery is even necessary. How risky is it to have surgery while I am pregnant? What are the chances that this thing will twist or rupture in the next 6 months if I decide not to have the surgery? What are the chances that this is cancerous? If anybody has any answers or stories of their experiance - I would LOVE to hear it. Thanks!

[boosty]

hi. i too have a cyst and my surgery will be on 3/06/07. i have heard that pregnnat women can have the surgery to remove the cyst because if they dont remove it, it will interfere with you being able to give birth. i dont know much about it, thats all i know. but i am guessing that if your doctor told you that its ok to do this, then you shouldnt worry too much. is she the same doctor that will deliver your baby? i know its hard and youre probably really worried and have many questions. but just wait til the 22nd and make sure you write down all your questions to ask your doctor. good luck, let us knwo how it goes

[1dakota]

I had a cyst while I was pregnant (not where yours is) and they left it until after I deliverd. It hurt towards the end and I took time off work for it. Then after I deliverd they did an ultrasound and they said it was not there so I did not need surgery. I would be upset if my doctor wouldent talk about it. Make sure you get all your answers.

[bn4dyce]

I just had a laproscopy bc I also have a large cyst on my right ovary. During the procedure my ob/gyn told my fiance he couldnt get the large (6.5cm) cyst because it has now attached itself to my kidney. My advise-even though I'm not pregnant, just from someone who went through something- is to do research. Go to Webmd.com and look up some info. Ask general surgrons, and make sure you are comfortable with the doctor doing the surgery. Keep in mind you dont have to go through with anything you arent comfortable with. If you would rather wait until after you give birth its your right to do so. Make sure to ask a lot of questions.
Hope that helps and good luck

[bburnham21]

I am 11 weeks pregnant and have an 8.0 cm cyst I have been having considerable amounts of pain and my doctor has taken me out of work until our next apt. on 3/2/07. That is when we decide what we will have to do with the cyst. I have also been having trouble finding information about pregnant women who have ovarian cysts. My doctor keeps telling me to rest (impossible with a one year old),take tylenol and use a heating pad. The doctor also gave me Tylenol #3 which had not helped at all. The doctors are less than informative because they don't want to needlessly scare you. Don't worry too much. I actually saw the surgery performed on TLC last night. I was quite surprised to see it done but it was on a program called "Menopause at 22" and the woman having the surgery was not pregnant but it showed everything and was very informative. Try to find it on thier website. they may have more info I have not checked yet. I hope eveything goes well for you.

[raquelgrace]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I decided to cancel my surgery on Friday. I am feeling like everything will be okay. I am however having a second opinion today with a specialist. I will let you know how it turns out.
bburnham21 - let me know how everything goes with you. I am curious.
Thank you all sooo much.  

[tami671]

I had a stage 1a tumor removed when I was 16 weeks pregnant in 2006.  I was told that because of the size of the tumor my baby would not make it full term if I left it in.  My doctors told me there was only a 1 percent chance of the surgery causing me to go into labor and lose the baby.  Of course nothing reassured me but the surgery was a success and luckily I chose an oncologist to do the surgery because the tumor  turned out to be malignant.  The doctors said that the risk in having surgery during pregnancy lies in the surgery causing premature labor and delivering a baby that would not survive out of the womb.  If you do surgery to early the baby is not strong enough to with stand any kind of trauma in the abdominal area, and if you wait much longer than 17 or 18 weeks the surgery could cause premature labor and you might deliver a baby that only makes it for a few weeks out of utero, which no one wants to face. So 16 weeks is the most ideal time to have the surgery. Also, I was told I would lose my ovary but the surgeon was able to leave part of my ovary intacked and he told me I could still produce eggs with just part of an ovary.  It was a terribly scary thing to go through but this risks are minimal and I now have a very healthy 14 month old.  And a side note on the tumor my doctors told me that because the tumor was intacked and stayed that way through surgery and  swabs of the surrounding organs and surfaces came back negative for cancer cells, I did not need to do chemo and that i should just see the oncologist for the next couple of years to make shure it did not resurface or cancer show up anywhere else.

[honestysmom]

Hi my name is anna and I was diagnosed with bilateral ovarian teratomas back in june 08 then two months later found out I was pregnant. I went to several specialists and some said have the surgery at 20 weeks and my regular OB said wait til i give birth. I wish I had of waited but the only reason I had the surgery at 20 weeks was because I was watched my daughter kicking at the dermoid on my left so I figured it was hurting her so my fiance and I decided to have the surgery. A week after the surgery my cervix began to funnel from the inside and 2 weeks after that I gave birth to my daughter at 23 weeks and she died 3 hours later. I give you this advise to at least wait til you are further along like 24 weeks or wait til you give birth, I know its hard to have to be on bed rest from this but if you really want and love your child then you will endure this mild stone and wait. I know because I am still grieving and there is not a day that goes by that I dont regret having the surgery. If there is anything that I can do to help you then please check my myspace out at www.myspace.com/yunggrl10 or email me at ***@****. I just hope that you go in with good judgement.

[keywhi]

I am 15 weeks pregnant and I have an 11 Cm Dermoid cyst. the mass is on top of my uterus. At first my doctor told me it was fine to wait until after delivery to deal with the problem but for whatever reason at my last visit I was told i would have the surgery on 7-27-09 which is not very far away. I am terrified because i don't want to loose my baby but if i wait and then this thing starts to twist or bursts later on the id have to have emergency surgery and the chance of loosing my child would be greater. I don't know what I should do. if there is anyone who could help me in making this decision please feel free to let me hear your thoughts because i don't have very long. 12 days to be exact!

[Melody42]

How did everything go with your surgery?  I have a 12cm dermoid cyst on my right ovary and I am scheduled for a laparotomy on Aug.23rd.  I'm trying to stay positive but this is my first pregnancy and I don't know how I would deal with it if anything happened to my baby.  I hope everything went well for you!

[glo722]

I had a Dermoid Cyst the size of a grapefruit on my right overy.. the ultrasound tech found it during a routine 20 week fetal ultrasound. I was told by my doctor that there were risks either way wether i left it or had it removed. we weighed out the pros and cons and came to the desicion that the surgery was a better choice. I had the surgery, everything came out fine and baby went full term and was delivered healthy. it all depends on your own situatioin and your own pros and cons. good luck to anyone going through this.  

[moparlaz]

My Wife just had surgery 2 nights ago to remove a 13 cm cyst on her left ovary. I've been looking for info for 2 months because of the pain she was in and couldn't find anything. She is doing very well and i would suggest to any one out there in pain with a cyst larger the 6 cm to get a hold of an ob and get that thing out of there. We were in er twice this week and both times were told to take pain killers for the remainder of the pregnancy. SEE AN OB and only take her advice into consideration, no one else could possibly be more knowlegable.

[Anstar16]

hi,
I am 15 weeks pregnant with 17cm ovarian cyst. Doctors recommended to remove it by laproscopic surgery. I would like to know what kind of anesthesia is being used for this surgery if anyone had it. Was it general anesthesia or epidural anethesia. I need to make a decision in few days.

[ner371]

Hi everyone, I am 8 weeks pregnant and was also diagnosed having two cyst both on my ovary.Left size is quite small and my right size is a dermoid cyst with 8.2 x 5.6 cm. My OB advised me to have an operation to remove the dermoid cyst between 14 to 16 weeks of pregnanancy. I was terribly worried because I am also 8 weeks pregnant. This is our first baby and I dont know what to decide as my OB told me that it might be a risky on my baby's part resulting to miscarriage. Please help me to decide.

[danielle198191]

What happened? I am going through a similar situation and can't decide if i should do the surgery. My cyst is 6cm and my OB says it can really go either way. I am 20 weeks and need to decide quick!

[babydonut]

I am 3 months pregnant i have a hypertrophy on my left ear i want to remove it through minor surgery.  Is it safe for me? or it is possible to undergo minor surgery inspite of my situation that i am pregnant?

[mks345]

I just saw all of these questions and feel bad that I didn't see them until now.  In 1993 I was pregnant with my first child and had a dermoid tumor on my ovary that was growing with the baby.  At 20 weeks, the doctor performed a laparotomy surgery and removed the tumor.  I had contractions some for the first day following surgery, but IV meds stopped all contractions.  The meds stopped it so well that I went ten days past my due date and had to have a c-section for failure to progress.  I laugh about it now!  But anyway, while it was stressful, my surgery turned out to be successful.  My daughter just graduated from high school with honors.  Life is good.  :)

[lbgrace]

hi mks345, how long is the recovery period after the operation? Thanks