Monday, July 2, 2007

Seromucinous Cystdenofibroma?!?!?!

I had my second surgery a week ago today. The goal was to remove another endometrioma (cyst) from my right ovary and a polyp or some sort of growth from my uterus. This surgery is the second I've had in less than 10 months. I had hoped to never have another surgery again.

The good news is my surgeon (Dr. Gary Goldman) found no endometriosis during the procedure! The bad news is that besides the endometrioma and the growth in my uterus (which was actually nothing more than a thickening of the uteral lining) he found an unexpected mass on my right ovary that had not shown up in the many sonograms I have had. He said that he initially thought that the mass was malignant so had a freeze-biopsy done immediately. The preliminary biopsy came back negative and, luckily, so did the final biopsy. The mass was a seromucinous cystdenofibroma. Yikes. Although Dr. Goldman says that I have nothing to worry about, I find it worrisome that:
  1. He initially thought it malignant;
  2. I have so many damn growths going on down there. With the thickening of the uterus, the second endometrioma (which i think was caused by some leftover endometrioma tissue from my last surgery, and now this mystery fibroma, I believe my reproductive organs, especially my right ovary, have just been way too busy lately with strange growths.

I'm wondering if my ovary should be removed to avoid future problems.

On another possibly positive note, about three weeks before my surgery, sonograms showed that both my endometrioma and my uteral growth were about 20% smaller. Since I've been on Yaz non-stop for the last three months I doubt this had anything to do with hormonal fluctuations. I am wondering if this could have been caused by:

  1. My new diet (low hormone, low pesticide, low sugar, low gluten);
  2. The Yaz (higher-progesterone birth control pill);
  3. The fact that I started avoiding tea tree oil and lavender products about six weeks ago. I recently discovered that tea tree oil and lavender have been shown to mimic the effects of estrogen in boys (they have caused boys to grow breasts) and since I've been using tea tree oil shampoo for at least the last seven years, I decided to stop immediately.
  4. I have also been trying to cut out phytoestrogens as much as possible in my life, such as househould cleaners/products with petroleum-based ingredients or otherwise potentially harmful ingredients, beauty products with parabens and other potentially harmful ingredients, etc.
  5. Perhaps most importantly, I am trying to relax and cut down on stress and turmoil in my life.

So, am not sure what I've been doing right to have made the endometriosis completely disappear. I do know that I've felt a positive change physicaly since I started avoiding sugars (I'm hypoglycemic). Also, I feel better not eating wheat products and instead trying to eat non-glutenous grains as much as possible. Finally, taking a multi-vitamin B supplement, also helps me feel more relaxed (people with hypoglycemia can benefit from vitamin B).

At any rate, my main worry now is trying to avoid the recurrence of any more cysts and growths down there. And of course, I hope to avoid any future endometriosis. I would like to get off the pill completely, but I must admit that it helped halt any major pain from my endometrioma. Before I got on Yaz the pain could be unbearable, although just once a month or so before my period for about 20 minutes, so it wasn't as if I was experiencing terrible pain all the time.

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