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 Ovarian Cysts In Women

And, during this time, of course, like most Obstetrician Gynecologists, I’ve encountered more than my fair share, I guess, of questions regarding cysts and women who have concerns of cysts. And, I could tell you from this experience that probably the number one concern every woman has when she goes to the doctor is that she might have a cyst. And probably almost every one of these women have had cysts. That’s the ironic thing.

I’d like to say that cysts do not - it's not equivalent to a tumor. And I think that’s where a lot of the confusion comes in, because I think most lay people are of the concern, "Well, I’ve got a cyst, that must be a tumor." And, the reason that certainly women should be concerned is that probably the incidence of ovary tumors is somewhere between five and seven percent, meaning that five to seven percent will develop a tumor during their lifetime. Again, most of these tumors are benign - that’s non-cancerous. But, the key here is that some of these tumors are cystic tumors. Some of the cancers are cystic cancers, but the majority of cysts are not tumors, and therefore, certainly are not cancerous.

I think the first thing very important to say to women of all ages, just to have a brief overview of what the ovaries are. I’m sure they know they’re the reproductive organs located in the pelvis. They are about the size of, I guess, a Robin’s egg. The ovaries produce the eggs and the female hormones. The female hormones, of course, are the estrogens and that regulate the uterus, the menstrual cycle, as well as various stages of pregnancy. The processes that cause the ovary to produce these hormones is very complex series of interactions of bio-chemical and feedback mechanisms that primarily is regulated by the pituitary gland in the brain. And the reason - this is going to be important a little bit later when we discuss certain types of cysts.

What is a cyst? A cyst in general is just a fluid-filled sac, or it’s a fluid-filled membrane - some liquid covered by a membrane in the body. And I’m sure that, as an example, some cysts that are seen frequently are sometimes certain skin cysts. There’s also ganglion that both men and women get on their wrists and up over various tendons. Again, these are just fluid-filled sacs that are growing for various reasons.