9 cm ovarian cyst and uterine polyp.. need surgery but I'm terrified

[silvercharm210]

I was diagnosed about a year ago with a 9 cm simple cyst in my left ovary and a 1cm uterine polyp.  I was told I need surgery to remove them as they will not disappear on their own.  I have been putting off the surgery because I am really terrified.  I know they are going to do stuff "down there" and having been sexually assaulted by an ex boyfriend in the past, I am absolutely terrified of being under anesthesia while all of this is going on.  I have never had any kind of surgery before, and I also have general anxiety disorder.  I know I can't put it off forever, and my anxiety is overwhelming given that this is on my mind constantly.  Can anyone provide advice for someone who has never gone through this before?  I can't even fully explain the extent of my panic over this procedure.

[Rancane]

I had my first surgery 10 days ago. I had a 7.5cm cyst in my left ovary and I am also diagnosed with endometriosis. I also suffer from anxiety and was very worried about the surgery and the anaesthesia. I was lucky because my husband and family could support me, but my advice is to try to schedule the surgery. You will feel anxious as the day will come closer, but once it is done it is done. I felt a huge relief. Before I imagined the worst scenarios in my head - what if I die during the surgery, what if they do it wrong and they mess up my ovary etc? I the cyst was left there my doctor said that in future it could have affected my whole ovary. I am still in my recovery period and now I have other worries as today I started feeling stabbing pain and also my mood is out of control because of the hormone treatment, but overall it was a thing that needed to get done. The surgery experience itself wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. When they took me to the surgery room and didn't even notice once it was over. It is scary to trust your body to someone you don't know, but I met the doctor beforehand and built some trust.

[old_before_my_time]

I do understand but not because I'd been sexually assaulted. Are you sure this simple cyst is still there? Have you had a recent u/s and, if so, how big is the cyst and do you know it's the same one? Most cysts resolve on their own. I didn't think polyps had to be removed especially if they aren't causing overly heavy bleeding.

Another risk of gynecologic surgery is that organs are far too often removed unnecessarily versus just the growth (e.g., cyst, fibroid, polyp). So if you really do need surgery, you will want to make sure the consent form is written to only allow removal of the cyst and polyp and not the ovary (oophorectomy), uterus (hysterectomy) or tubes (salpingectomy). Many of the consent forms are open ended allowing organ removal so patients need to revise them to state what can and cannot be removed and under what circumstances (e.g., benign versus cancer).

Please keep us posted. Best of luck in getting properly treated and getting through this.