Effective Treatment for Ovarian Cysts
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Let’s start with the most common ovarian cysts. Most women have physiologic or functional cysts which are easily treated with natural methods. They are termed like that due to their characteristic of appearing and disappearing depending on the body's hormonal influence. Follicular cysts are hands down the most frequent types of cysts that occur in the ovaries. The ovary may have more than one cyst and the size may vary between a few millimeters to 15 centimeters. A physiologic cyst can be formed by any normal ovarian follicle at any given cycle. The usual size of cysts are from an inch to two.Three to five centimeters in size is common.
Follicular cysts are not “tumors”, which are actual abnormal cell growths or lumps on the ovary. Follicular cysts are simply thin fluid-filled little sacs, called cysts, which develop from follicles and are under the influence of hormone fluctuation in your body. Regardless whether ovulation occurs or not, the sac will simply be taken up by the ovary. But this follicle sac can swell up with fluid, forming a cyst. These cysts might last just a short time and popping or they can keep swelling or stay the same size and simply refuse to go away.
Before deciding on what treatment is needed, it is crucial to understand the difference between the types of cysts and to understand that some of them are not cysts at all.A few may be tumors that are empty inside and may look like cysts on an ultrasound or scan. What you read here will help you understand what your doctor needs to do to make sure you do not have ovarian tumors, benign or malignant. After identifying the type of physiologic cyst, the path to choosing the the treatment will be much simpler and safer.
What are the typical signs of follicular cysts? There are other symptoms that can occur aside from abnormal uterine bleeding, pain from fluid and blood leaking out. These complications can occur with any ovarian cyst or tumor as it grows. Any ovarian mass can cause a vague pressure sensation, constipation due to pressure on the rectum, urinary frequency or urgency due to pressure on the bladder and severe pain due to twisting of the ovary and cyst around itself (called torsion). The cyst has grown to a point where it has caused the ovarian blood vessels and ligaments to twist like a pretzel and calls for a surgical emergency. The pain can be acute, unrelenting and normally causes nausea and vomiting.
What about contraceptive pills? Do they help treat functional cysts? The short answer is no, they only help prevent future cysts from forming. Does this work? Taking oral contraceptive pills reduces the volume of hormones which activates the ovary coming from the pituitary gland. When the gonadotropins are scaled down, ovulation does not happen and you will not get pregnant. Basically, what this all means is that your body is “tricked” into thinking it is already pregnant, so your ovaries think it is unnecessary to ovulate. Oral birth control pills have a 99% chance in the prevention of pregnanacy. This is EXACTLY how they prevent functional ovarian cysts from forming too. No ovulation, no follicle, no cyst. So, your doctor may still give you “the pill” to prevent future cysts from forming. Oral contraceptives equally functions as a inhibitor of cysts and pregnancy prevention. Obviously, they do, and there is good scientific proof for it. With all of this out of the way, you can now consider natural options as well.
Mail this post