estria

Hello Dreamsong,

I am not in menopause but I do have a 9 cm ovarian cyst on my left ovary which is not the functional kind. I have to have surgery to remove it as I have been watching it for about 18 months and it has not gone away.

I have done A LOT of research on ovarian cysts and do know that up to as many as 15-20% of menopausal women have ovarian cysts, even though they are theoretically not supposed to be ovulating. Most of these do regress on their own (about 69% if memory serves). You do not have to have a period to "wash" them away. Even premenopausal women have multiple cysts on their ovaries at ovulation time and only the dominant follicle (cyst) ruptures to release the egg. The others regress back into the ovary until the beginning of the next cycle when they begin to grow again. Therefore cysts can be reabsorbed back into the ovary as part of the natural course of things.

If you do a search on the internet under unilocular cysts in menopausal women, you will come up with several studies that have been done on the subject. More and more, the management of these post menopausal cysts is being done through less invasive methods than surgery, such as regular followup ultrasounds. All depends upon what they look like and their size.

I personally would have been glad to keep going for regular ultrasounds but my cyst is slowly getting larger and it is already quite large so surgery seems to be my only option. At my age (42) they will remove the entire left ovary. This seems prudent as I don't want this to occur again and my right ovary can supply me with hormones until menopause (hopefully).

I hope this helps you a little. Hopefully someone with more experience will offer some input as well.

Take care and all the best.

Estria