right ovary pain

[Missy1018]

Doctor,
Could you please look at a pic that was taken last April when I had my appendix out.  He said to my husband right after that he wished he took my ovary too while in there.  I've had a lot of pain in it.  Do you think it looks like anything other then just cysts??  Would you recommend removing it?  If you give me an e mail address to send it to I will forward it.  Thanks.
By the way, I'm 42, I have two children and will ot be having anymore since I've had my left ovary and uterus removed due to a cyst rupturing on my ovary and numerous fibroid tumors on my uterus.

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  Thanks for posting the picture.  It doesn't look to me to be obviously malignant, but the only way to know for sure is to have that removed and examined by a pathologist.  Since you don't plan on having any more children, and since that ovary is already causing significant pain, removing it might be a good option to take.  Doing so would also lower your risk of developing ovarian and even breast cancer later on.  But the downside of having this procedure done is that you're going to lose your remaining source of estrogen.  This could result in premature symptoms of menopause (e.g. hot flashes, etc.) and an earlier onset of osteoporosis.  To prevent these complications from happening, you would have to be started on some kind of hormone replacement therapy after the ovary is excised.  

So think about all the pros and cons of the surgery and discuss it thoroughly with your doctor before deciding on any course of action.

[Missy1018]

I hope this works
http://picasaweb.google.com/msmichelesimpson/Surgery/photo#5177575625602628034

[Missy1018]

The picture is included in my pics here on this site....are you able to look at it that way??  

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  Instead of forwarding the picture to an email address, you may wish to upload that picture in a photo sharing site like flickr (http://www.flickr.com/), then post the web link to that picture in this forum.  I shall post my comment as soon as am able to view it.