Question about Gastro Symptoms & Cancer

I have been having very severe nausea that I am realizing begins around the time I ovulate and lasts for a week. It seems to get a little better for the next week and I have a little bit of an appetite, but it does not go away completely. Also in that second week, I get some of my usual cravings for sweets and some more frequent urination and low back ache. For the most part, my appetite is not great and I get full very easily. I get a little bloated, but not severe at all. I guess my question is, could this be a symptom for Ovarian Cancer, or would gastro symptoms for OVCA stay more severe and not be related to the cycling of the ovaries? I'm nervous because three years ago a CT scan said my left ovary had a hypodense area on it, then a follow-up ultrasound showed a small irregular cyst, but when I had my surgery, the gyn said it was a corpus luteum cyst and said the ovary was fine. He did a D&C and somebody in there lost the tissue, so I had no biopsy results. When my uterus was removed a few months later, there was no cancer, just some hyperplasia. I guess I'm concerned because of the problems I'm having now that something was missed. I also had some Endometriosis at the time, and I believe that is recurring, and I have PCOS, but wasn't sure if either of those things could be responsible for the horrible nausea or not. My Aunt died of OVCA and my grandmother was a survivor of Breast cancer, so I'm a little concerned about the genetics of it all. Thanks for any advice!

Lisa

Lisa, it sounds as if you are quite concerned. I would consult with either your primary care physician or your gynecologist. Do mention to the doctor your family history of breast and ovarian cancer. You can mention your concern that it could be ovarian cancer and ask them to keep this in mind. Plesae consult with one of your doctors.

Agreed. I'd never put anything like that on the back burner, considering your family history. It's likely to be something benign, but let the doctor decide that.

Good luck.

k9

Margaret and K9 - thank you for your advice. Unfortunately, I did not have much luck getting the gyns I saw in 2003 to listen to my concerns that there seemed to be an ovarian cause (either benign or cancerous) to my symptoms. Now that these symptoms have so greatly increased, I am determined to find a gyn who will listen to me, no matter how many I have to go through. I will be seeing a new one on Wednesday (I met her last month for a consultation and liked her a lot) and am hoping she will be able to help get to the root of the problem. My gastro doctor is having me do a CT scan of both my abdomen and pelvic area on Thursday, so hopefully that will shed some light on things as well. Three years ago I had some weird distortion of my abdomen occur. Although my symptoms improved with the surgeries I had, that distortion never went away completely, yet nobody else could feel or see it and it had not shown up on scans, so I believe they all thought I was crazy. I saw my gastro doctor in January and he did not notice it, then I was super sick for the rest of that month and it grew in size. When I went back to see him early this month, he could both see and feel it, hence the order for the CT scan. I don't really know what it is - could be from Endometriosis and be adhesions, could be a problem with my small intestine for Celiac, or anything else for that matter, but I do know without a doubt that ovulation triggered my extreme nausea and triggered that area to be more bloated, so I really, really, REALLY feel like there is a hormonal component. Now...if only I can get the new gyn to believe me and find the cause, then maybe it can be fixed. If you've gotten this far...thanks for listening to my venting!!! I appreciate the advice and support from this site. Take care,
Lisa

Good luck w/the new doc on Wednesday and the CT on Thursday...let us know how it goes.

K9

Hi Lisa,
Please make sure you get a CT scan and a transvaginal sonogram, my mom who is 75 yrs old, started with those kind of sympthons, first i thought she had a urine tract infection, took her to her gyn and she was prescribe antibotics, 2 weeks later my mom was still feeling sick, so i took her to her primary doctor and she had her admitted thinking maybe she had kidney stones, so she had all kind of tests done and, The Cat Scan came back that they found a tumor, and so they did her blood work
CA125 and it came back very high, which her cancer was spreading
never did i thought that my mom would have ovarian cancer, it was such a shock to us. but for months she was feeling all these sympthons and she just brush it off. Tomorrow she wiil go in for surgery and have a hysterectomy and dubulking,
Try to see a gyn oncologist, but please let them do your all those tests, i wish you luck
Carmen

Carmen -
Thank you for sharing your mom's story. I pray that her surgery will go well and that she will be feeling better after the tumor is removed. I am hoping the doctors I am seeing now will be able to find out what is going on. It is scary having these symptoms and feeling like maybe they missed something a few years ago and that it has been getting worse. I'm really leaning towards feeling it is something benign (or at least I was leaning that way until the super crazy nausea started). I guess I just really don't know until the tests are done. Take care, and best wishes to your mom.

Lisa

After my surgery - a trach and removal of endo, I've had a lot of issues with adhesions and pain. It was attached to my bowel and bladder, so come "period" time it was very painful - even though I wasn't bleeding.

It's worth mentioning it to someone so they can check you out, but if you still have your ovaries it might well be that. The pain is incredibly severe IMHO.

Of course, now I'm having chemo and radio it's clearing that up for me - hot flushes seem to have started though.