Endometrioma removal prior to IVF

[Tumbleflumps]

I met with my consultant last week to discuss the cyst that was found behind my uterus. He admitted to making a mistake by failing to act on removing the cyst last year when it was originally found in an ultrasound. He believes that when he wrote to me, he was looking at a scan of mine from 2013 where everything was clear.

He wants the cyst, which is around 5cm, to be removed, however my local CCG is looking into either reducing IVF treatment from two cycles to one or stopping the funding altogether. Naturally I want the IVF to go ahead as soon as possible, as we've been waiting a very long time for this so I'm worried that any kind of surgery to remove the cyst is going to delay IVF treatment and in the meantime, the funding will be cut.

The consultant is going to write to the clinic to see if they will go ahead with the treatment, as the cyst is behind my uterus. I have a very bad feeling that they'll say they want it removed 😔

Any thoughts on this?

[scribble1603]

I had an endometrioma in each ovary which I had removed after our second round of IVF. This was mainly to reduce the amount of pain I had. One has since grown back in less than 2 months!

There are conflicting views on whether patients should have surgery before IVF. Have you already been to the fertility clinic? If so, I would suggest speaking to them directly so that you can ask any questions yourself rather than relying on your consultant as the messenger. Good luck x

[Tumbleflumps in reply to scribble1603]

Hiya no I've not been referred yet though I do know which clinics I'll be referred to. As the cyst is behind my womb and not on the ovaries, I'd like to think that they would go ahead with it but I don't know the extent of the endo so I'm wondering if they want to know what's there first? My mind is just full of wonderings!!

[andromedae9]

During my 1st round of IVF (BFN)end of last year I was told that I had one endometrioma @ 5cm on my left ovary and possibly one smaller one on my right one. I hadn't previously been diagnosed with endometriosis and haven't really experienced any pain apart from quite painful periods. so it all came as a bit of a shock to me.

My consultant said that they would still go through with egg collection despite the 5cm endometrioma and said that unless it grew and started to cause a lot of pain it was best to leave it alone as it can affect fertility but as scribble1603 is saying there are conflicting views as I have also heard that endometriosis can cause a toxic environment for embryos...

We went through with the egg collection in Dec -2015 anyway but the pain and discomfort never settled and the left side of my tummy was swollen. End of March this year I decided to contact my GP re the lingering pain and got referred to gynae. After scans it was confirmed that the endometrioma had grown to 10cm! and it needs to be removed. 1st laparoscopy has been done and will have my second lap next week. This has delayed our second IVF round with almost a year!

Endometriomas can grow very rapidly like in my case but also stay the same size for years.

I would contact your fertility clinic to see what they think is the best approach. Best of luck!

x

[Tumbleflumps in reply to andromedae9]

That's really interesting to know. They found my endometrioma during a normal ultrasound last year (tho the consultant failed to act on it!) so seems to have appeared in the three years since I miscarried. I dont recall him saying that its gotten bigger in the past year. Is it possible to just have an endometrioma but no endometriosis elsewhere?

I dont have any pain that I would say was abnormal to me apart from a couple of times a few years back (prior to ttc) where I'd faint off the toilet and one other time where it was just horrendous after my miscarriage.

I'm hoping they will just leave it alone for now because time is running out as to whether they are going to continue with ivf funding !