His and Her Health

Hello.
I have had abdominal pain and irregular bleeding for about 6 months. I just had a pelvic ultrasound and was diagnosed with a 6.1cm simple, unilocular ovarian cyst on my right ovary. My doctor wants to wait a month and do another ultrasound. But because this cyst is so large and I've had pain and bleeding for 6 months I wanted to know if I should have more testing to rule out cancer.

I am 41 and have been on bio-identical hormones for a year. I have been going through perimenopause for 3 years and stopped having periods a few months before I started the hormones.

Thank you for your guidance.
Elizabeth

Please visit our website and our companion website for more information.
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Dear Elizabeth,

I appreciate your logging onto our website. Answering your concerns, is very important to me, so I consulted one of our medical advisors, Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a widely recognized specialist in the field of menopause. Here is
Dr. Mary Jane Minkin's reply:


"Elizabeth:
As you noted, you are perimenopausal. In perimenopause, your hormone levels are very variable, and sometimes you are making a lot of a hormone called FSH in your pituitary gland, which gets into your blood stream, and which can really stimulate your ovaries-which can still respond at this point. One option you might want to consider, if you are a good candidate, would be a low dose birth control pill (a good candidate is a non smoker who has normal blood pressure)-it would help suppress your pituitary gland, and thus decrease stimulation to your ovary. The other bonus is that a low dose pill will usually help control symptoms like hot flashes and insomnia-so you might get some relief there. Do discuss it with your health care provider-and waiting a month or two is totally reasonable, to see if the cyst shrinks with this regime.
Good luck,
Mary Jane"

Mary Jane Minkin, MD
Clinical Professor OB/GYN
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, CT

I hope that this information has been helpful.

Good health to you,