Our Story- Saschan (Co-Founder)

I first became aware that something was wrong when I started to gain weight in November 2010. My first response was to cut down what I was eating and exercise more but the weight continued to gradually pile on! In December 2010 I had a mirena coil fitted by my GP resulting in pelvic inflammatory disease, which if left untreated for a prolonged period of time can result in infertility and can even be fatal in some cases.

After several trips to several different A and E departments from London to Liverpool and some inbetween, suffering with extreme abdominal pain I was given a course of 2 antibiotics. Despite this I continued gaining weight and continued  having increasingly painful abdominal cramps and sharp shooting pains in my left ovary, so I went back to my GP. She was thankfully very understanding and referred me to the Liverpool Women’s hospital for an ultrasound. The results of my ultrasound arrived a few days later and I was called into my doctors’ office where she told me that the ultrasound had detected a cyst on my right ovary of an unusually large size for someone my age.

Anyway after a consultation with an advanced practitioner and a bunch of blood tests they confirmed that my cyst was 21 X 24 X 19 cm, to show you how large that is take a 30cm ruler and have a look. So after a chat about my options it was decided that surgery to remove the cyst was my only option. After 4 weeks of waiting, several trips to A & E and a lot of time in chronic pain I followed some good advice and booked an appointment with a private gynaecologist.

I went for my appointment, she took one look at  the medical information I had taken with me and said “ Well! That definitely has to come out doesn’t it?!” and proceeded to book my surgery for the following Wednesday.  She talked me through the type of incision they would make and how the scarring could look and she explained that there was a small possibility that i would come round from my surgery one ovary down.

The day after surgery a member of the surgical team came to see me, he told me that my operation had been a success but due to the extensive damage that the cyst had placed on my reproductive system they had had to remove the majority of

my right ovary and fallopian tube. They had checked the left ovary and tube and my womb and they were perfectly healthy. My gynaecologist later told me that they had drained nearly 4 litres of fluid from my cyst and had also

discovered a  teratoma( an encapsulated tumor with tissue or organ components resembling normal derivatives of all three germ layers) . The type of teratoma I had was a dermoid cyst, (a mature teratoma which contained teeth, hair, and fatty deposits) within the ovary itself. She said I would still be able to conceive but would have to go back for tests at 6 and 12 months and then regularly after that to make sure that another cyst had not appeared on my left ovary.

Recovery has (at the time of writing) taken over 5  months and there are still some days when I have discomfort and pain, my scar is healing, albeit slowly, and I am gradually getting back to my normal everyday life although I have recently received news that a cyst has started to grow on my remaining ovary.