What about age?

[cjc147]

I've gotten some valuable info from your posts.  Thanks.  One issue not addressed is that few mention age, and as I know from previous surgery, age matters very much in the issue of recovery.  I am 70 years old, and will be having either a laparoscopy or laparotomy in two weeks, I suspect the latter.  I have a 6-7 cm ovarian cyst/tumor, probably with dense material.  Don't know about chances of malignancy yet, but I suspect pretty high due to age and size.  I'm not in very good condition due to neurological problems for last 8 months.  Is anyone else in this older age bracket?  After reading all of this, I'm pretty afraid.

[cjc147]

To all:  I mentioned OVA1 in my previous entry.  It has about 90% reliability in predicting whether an ovarian mass is benign or malignant.  There are quite a few false positives (important to keep in mind), but few false negatives.  It is a compilation of 5 different tests, including CA125.  The other tests included are more significant predictors, but the CA125 is helpful for someone going into cancer treatment to determine how well it is working.  Googling OVA1 will give you some helpful info.

[cjc147]

Thanks, AnnieB.  I have searched pretty well the other sites and have lots of info about ovarian cysts and tumors.  The chances of malignancy increase if it is not a saline cyst, and from the CT, the gyn. thinks denser material.  I certainly am hoping for benign, and I know that it may be.  That will be wonderful.  We're in the middle of testing, and 2 days ago I had a brand new test, OVA1.  I was just approved by the FDA in Sept. and Medicare in March.  We'll know more after that and after an ultrasound in two days.

I am not negative--I just like to know what the prospects are for recovery.  Since the tumor has solids in it, it looks like it probably will be the laparotomy, and that recovery is much more significant.

Thanks for your encouraging words; what I need is experiences of those in my age group.  

[AnnieBrooke]

Hi, honey.  I'm sorry you're going through this.  I think there is an ovarian cancer forum, not that I'm saying you have it, but even just getting ready to go into surgery for a cyst/tumor, they would all understand on that forum and might have some great advice.  

I think women of all ages read this forum.  There's also a search bar at the top of the page, you could search with the term "ovarian surgery" and see what forums and past posts come up.  

Good luck, do you really think that just because you have a cyst or tumor, it must likely be malignant?  I don't see the correlation, but I've always dealt with things like saline cysts.  They can be huge, but aren't malignant.