keeping remaining ovary

Hello All,
I am headed back to the castle for possible removal of adhesions and my remaining ovary. I had a Tah and LSO on March 3, 2003. The first 8 weeks were smooth sailing. Beginning week 9 my right ovary started acting up. Ultrasound showed what appeared to be a functinal cyst. When the pain persisted into it's second month my OB-GYN and I tried Lupron. Alas the cyst disappeared, however the pain continues. I was sent for a PT evaluation as well. My OB-GYN seems to feel a lap is in order. We discussed the removal of the ovary....any thoughts?

Monica,
My last 1/2 of an ovary was removed when I had the hyst and I wasn't given a choice so I don't really have a relative experience to share. I do know that if you polled 100 women, 50 may tell you to keep it and 50 may say get it out of there!

If you do decide to have it removed you will be in surgical menopause and will probably require hrt. Do read the articles at www.hormonejungle.com There is much information there about hrt, symptoms of imbalance and much more.

Also you may want to check out The Hormone message forum http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/for...p?s=&forumid=5 and see what some of us have had to go thru with this thing called surgical menopause.

One thing to keep in mind though is that we are all different and not everyone has such a difficult time with hrt. I don't envy you your decision Monica. Hopefully you'll get some more input from others here.

No matter what your choice is, remember that your sisters are here for you and will support you 110%!

I am in a similiar boat except that I have my left ovary remaining.
I had my TAH on 8/5/02

It is curious that the doc thinks that removing your ovary will solve your pain problem considering that Lupron left you still in pain... the Lupron would have completely shut down your ovary (when I had an MRI when I was on Lupron they couldn't even see the ovaries since they had physcially shrunk so much). Perhaps the cyst wasn't the source of the pain afterall.

My doctor has suggested removing my left ovary might be necessary if my recurring pain problem is due to endo... since the left ovary would continue to feed any endo that was hiding. I am not sure what is going on but we are trying to rule out other things first (like I am doing the PT trial and I do have tight muscles in my pelvic floor ... the obturator is one in particular that is a problem for me).

I couldn't tell from your post if you had a problem with endo... if that is the case, my doctor has suggested to me that you are much less likely to continue to have problems if both ovaries are removed. I had my right ovary removed because it was terribly painful even though it looked normal (I had a pain mapping prior to surgery).

I am very hesitant to have any surgery or my remaining ovary removed right now. I have had 10 laps and the TAH, and 2 c-sections... I am not really convinced that more surgery will put me in a better place... and I am not yet convinced that surgical menopause is an option that will provide relief of my pain. I am worried I will still have pain, just be in menopause too. I am trying continuous BC pills. The doctor did want me to try Lupron again but I had some bad side affects and it is not something I want to re-live... it also didn't help my pain that much the last time I took it.

I can only share my thought process based on my own experience, age, history etc. Everyone is different. I hope you find an answer that works for you.

Sblumen

My TAH and LSO was for endometriosis, fibroids, adenomyosis and a continous painful period. I am leaning towards having the ovary removed, especially if there is evidence of additional endo. When I had my TAH the right ovary looked really good and healthy and most of my pain was on the left side or directly over the uterus. I know no ovaries means menopause, I'm hoping it won't be too bad.......I wasn't bad at all while on Lupron.

Monica,
I didn't have endo but do know that it can be very hard to deal with. There are cases of endo returning even once the ovary is removed. Than there are those that it has helped. Please check out the Endo section of our Resources forum http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/for...s=&forumid=161