My 33 yr old daughter has been diagnosed as having a large (13.5 cm x 11 cm x 8.5 cm) COMPLEX ovarian cyst.
She is unmarried and has never had children, and was therefore very upset when told that surgery (scheduled for 30.9.08) would involve removal of cyst plus ovary ( the cyst is so large they dont even know WHICH ovary is affected), and its examination by frozen section. If cancerous or abnormal cells are found in the region of the cyst where the wall has a fairly prominent lump, then they will take biopsies of the other ovary and surrounding tissues, and if any abnormalities are found here proceed to removal of other ovary and full hysterectomy.
I have the following concerns
1. If both ovaries are remnoved would it be possible to rescue and arrange to preserve any availabler NORMAL ovarian tissue to give my daughter some chance of future motherhood? What would this 'preservation' process involve? Are there proven cases where such preserved tissue has been 'activated' to produce eggs which have resulted in successful later pregnancy??
2. Why would cancer in the ovaries necessitate hysterectomy?
We will be happy whatever the outcome if it means a healthy person who is cancer free, but want to proceed as conservatively as possible in terms of preserving her fertility too.
We are fearful and confused. After the initial diagnosis of an ovarian cyst we werent too upset as my daughter and I both have PCOS, but this cyst is nothing like the cysts I saw in my own ovaries, and it is causing some mild discomfort and some urinary type symptoms for my daughter. Obviously it is so large that it MUST be removed, and it's complex nature means that this removal must mean the loss of the ovary, which would be all that would occur if the cyst is benign, however ner CA125 scan came back with an elevated level (59) so we really won't know if it is cancerous until surgery.