GynoFiles

Dermoid Cyst of the Ovary (Benign Cystic Teratoma) Most ovarian cysts come and go. In fact most ovarian cysts never make it to the attention of your health care provider. However, those ovarian cysts that are present on a serial set of ultrasounds become signficantly less likely to ever resolve without your gynecologist intervening. Persistent pelvic masses are not always ovarian cancers, in fact many will be the non-cancerous dermoid cyst shown in this picture.In a review of a study of ovarian masses seen on ultrasound in women over 50 a new study reported in the AJOG in November 2015 has shown that watching and repeating the ultrasound actually did better at determining if an ovarian mass was really cancerous. In this study patients were watched over 3 years. In the past it was thought that a mass of stable size over 6 months would not be a cancer. The theory was that ovarian masses either are cancerous or not cancerous and that masses that are not cancerous cannot evolve into a...

Benign simple ovarian cysts can be treated with aspiration of their fluid content as a first step.

This is a pelvic ultrasound of what appeared to be a large pelvic cyst, probably of one of the ovaries, but no ovarian abnormality was found at surgery. All abdomens have fluid that in actuality prevents the tissues from sticking together. Some women who have had infections, surgery, endometriosis or other conditions can develop pelvic scar tissue also called adhesion.Medically there can be a number of complications from pelvic or abdominal adhesions . These adhesions act like internal passageways and entrap fluid thus a women may have a mass on examination and then found to have fluid collections that appear on ultrasound to be a cyst of the ovary. Blood tests and other test may offer a clue to diagnosis but otherwise final diagnosis has to be made at the time of surgery.