Conference turris::womannotes-v3

687.0. "Cysts during pregnancy" by ASDS::BARLOW (Me for MA governor!!!) Thu Jan 31 1991 09:41

    
    I need some informtation for a very worried friend of mine.
    She and her husband just found out that they are pregnant on 
    Saterday.  Wednesday, yesterday, she went for her first 
    doctor visit.  During the pelvic exam, the doctor said he
    felt cysts.  He explained to her that if the cysts are on her
    ovaries, they'll probably disintigrate over time.  If they don't
    go away, he could remove them through surgery with minimal risk to 
    the baby.  (To her, it's a baby already.)  However, if they are
    in her fallopian tubes, she'll have to abort the baby and have
    them removed.  He furthur went on to say that the only way to
    find out where the cysts are, is through an ultra-sound and that
    the cysts won't be big enough to see for 2 more weeks!
    So, she has to wait two weeks wondering if she will need to abort the
    baby.  Also, the doctor warned her that sex, in certain positions,
    could possibly rupture the cyst, somehow harming the baby.
    
    Does anyone have any information that I can give her?
    
    She's usually a very calm, patient woman.  (She's a social worker
    and works with clients many of whom are both blind and retarded.)
    Any information would be appreciated, as I'm very worried about 
    her.
    
    Thank you!
    Rachael

Rachael, 

You might also want to ask this in MRDATA::PARENTING.  There are a lot
of discussions of various medical issues related to pregnancy, and
I think cysts have been discussed a time or two.  If not, there are
almost certainly some people in there who have been through something
similar.

My immediate, inexperienced reaction is to advise her to get a 
second opinion.  I don't know much about cysts and have never had one
myself, but I know at least one woman who carried to term with a large
uterine cyst.  Is she sure she understood him correctly?  It doesn't 
seem like a cyst in the Fallopian tube should require an abortion -- the
Fallopian tubes aren't inside the uterus.  

--bonnie

    see also:
    
    Parenting_v2
    1782 - cysts in early pregnancy
    
    Parenting_v3
    277 - ovarian cyst during pregnancy
    
    -Jody
    

    I agree with .1
    
    I get them all the time.  Only when they become life-threatening do I
    have to have surgery.  And the surgery is usually a Laparotomy, which
    is through the belly-button and it's day-surgery.
    
    I wish your friend lots of luck ...
    
    Tammi