erin, that's a whole lot of suck right there. I wish there were some magic words I could say that would ease the pain, but alas, there aren't.

I had recurring ovarian cysts, and ended up getting an ovary removed, and a cyst on the remaining ovary lanced. It came back.

Is it always on the same ovary? My hysterectomy was the best thing I've done, but of course, I had a slew of other problems with my repro system, and I was quite A-OK with not wishing to have children. I completely have sympathy, erin; it's awful. I was on Vicodin for 4 days/month for 4 years, and the pain, bleeding and utter hormonal insanity was awful.

It's always the same one. Always. I've many times wondered if i could just fish around in there and yank it out myself. Far more trouble than it's worth. If it is what that (and what else would it be with the super localized pain and extra special bleeding) maybe it's time to talk about taking it out. Back when i had the first one (20 years ago! Erhmagard, i'm oldz!) a full hysterectomy was recommended but that seemed a little overzealous. The left one is just fine and causes me no problems and my uterus, while useless to me, doesn't cause me any trouble being there. That right one, though, grrrr. I would rather have it in a mason jar of formaldeyde on a bookshelf where i could keep a watchfull eye on it. Up to no good, i tell you.

I can say that if you have great health insurance, an oophrectomy sounds like it might be the best solution. I mean, I'm not a gyno, but if it keeps coming back, then I say yank!

Mine involved a two day hospital stay, and 4 weeks off. But YOvaryMV, since I had a grapefruit sized cyst on the one they took out, and they opened me up to lance cysts on the other ovary. Recovery was still fairly easy. I was...mmm...33? 34? and they wanted me to try and keep an ovary, but then Ovary #2 got all swelly, and the uterus was still all Evil Overlord, so 2 years later, I was all BEGONE REPRO ORGANS!

Erin,

They also have procedures where you can get the ovary out and go home same day. It's surgery with a mechanical arm. I had that to remove a fibroid. Quicker recovery and scars are small.

Sadly, doctors are rarely willing to send home offending ex-internal organs so that they can be placed in easily observable and securable locations.

It was true for me...though my excellent, but lamentably retired now, gyno promised that if it WAS a hairy teratoma, she would take a picture before she sent it to be biopsied. Or killed with fire, whatevs. (It wasn't hairy or befanged, more's the pity.)

I'm sure I can find *something* on Etsy to display in it's place.

I'm sure there are many things more terrifying than a simple, wee teratoma on Etsy...!

I always get really soaked when we color my hair, but I do make a good redhead, though.