Abnormal pap, irregular bleeding, 5 CM ovarian cyst, NEED ADVICE!!!

[2littleangels]

Hi all.  I am a 30-year-old mother of 2 little girls (ages 4 and 2).  I recently discovered I had a 5 CM ovarian cyst.  Up until then, I'd only had cysts with my pregnancies.  The recent cyst caused me to miss a period and think I was pregnant.  Then for the entire month of October, I bled every day.  It was never heavy bleeding...some days not even as heavy as a period.  In early November, I started bleeding off and on.  I never knew when I would bleed and when I wouldn't.  I started having very strange discharge (thin and watery, tinged with brown blood).  Because of the odor of the d/c, I decided I must have bacterial vaginosis.  I'd had that with both pregnancies.  So I knew the symptoms.  I saw my GYN again but she could find no BV.  The bleeding, ovary pain, and strange discharge continued.  I went to the GYN again, for my annual pap.  It came back abnormal (first one EVER).  It wasn't the usual ASCUS abnormal pap.  Mine showed Atypical Glandular Cells (apparently a more serious finding).  They also checked for HPV as standard procedure.  The test was negative.  

I just went back to the doc 2 days ago.  I had a colposcopy in which they did 4 cervical biopsies, endocervical curettage, and a uterine biopsy.  The doc said he did see a few "suspicious changes" but that's all he would say.  I have to wait 2 weeks for my results.  Ugghh!!

I continue to have irregular bleeding, strange discharge (sometimes it has black spots in it!), and pelvic pain.  Does anyone have any ideas about what could be wrong?  Could a cyst cause Atypical Glandular Cells on the pap?

[kitten22]

This sounds very familiar, I had a 5cm ovarian cyst removed and during the surgery they found I had endometriosis. I was experiencing irregular periods, passing rather nasty black stuff and 2 years prior I had 3 pap smears that came back inconclusive.
I know endo can cause periods to be irregular and you can pass some pretty disgusting stuff, I'm also aware that it can effect the pap smear results but so can other things so my advice is to tell your gyne what's going on and demand a diagnostic lap to find out what's going on.

[2littleangels]

LindaF,

Thank you.  That makes me feel much better.  I know there's really no chance of HPV.  My husband and I were virgins when we married (yes, it's really true).  We met at age 15, were high school sweethearts, got married while in college and have been happily married ever since.  I don't know much about HPV.  I know there are many, many types of it.  But I am assuming the kind that can lead to cervical cancer is strictly sexually transmitted.  So thankfully I don't have HPV to worry about.  

When you had your AGUS pap, did you have irregular bleeding and strange discharge?  I am also having bladder pain and frequent urination.  That worries me some, but maybe it is due to the cyst.  The irregular bleeding is not normal for me at all.  My periods have always been regular...every 27-29 days.  The strange discharge is not normal either.  I know my hormone levels are normal because I've had recent bloodwork done, twice, to check all levels.  Everything was normal.

[LindaF]

I had atypical glandular cells once. Turned out that I had a small non-malignant change inside my cervix, which is all glandular cells. I was worried about it too since it's more serious. My doc said yes, in the sense that you biopsy, etc, but the likelihood of it coming back cancer is still low. Also, if you get a yearly pap and have a negative HPV test (I've had three taken, three negatives), the likelihood of it being cervical cancer is pretty low as well. The cyst might not be causing the pap however I could imagine that there might be something going on inside the uterus (polyps, etc) that could be causing that pap result. Remember, the test results were ATYPICAL cells, NOT pre-cancerous or cancerous cells. From what I have read, hormonal changes can cause atypical and LSIL results and have nothing to do with HPV. The difference is that HPV + people who have atypical paps tend to progress forward towards cancer while those that are negative do not.

So...most likely, you are benign but something weird is going on. Welcome to my world :)  It's scary but I'm here to tell you, having been through it enough, your level of worry should be very low. Does that help?

L.