Oophorectomy

Hi Ellyni,
I couldn't help replying to your post being I had the same problem years ago. when I was in my 30's I lost my left ovary along with the tube due to a cyst that damaged it and it was forming an abcess inside.
when I had the surgery to have the mass investigated, we didn't know it was an abcess and that the ovary was ruined. so I woke up to find out he had removed my ovary and tube.
i wasnt' thrilled with the idea being that I was only going to have one ovary left and I too had questions wether I"d reach menopause early and would there be problems with only one ovary.
having one ovary produces enough hormones and I did not reach menopause early from having only one left.
having one ovary didn't make it any different for me in anyway.

I wish you well and hope that the good ovary you have left doesnt' get bombarded by other cysts. that's what happened to my only good ovary.
it was constantly getting bombarded by a chronic hemorphagic cyst so I was always in pain because it leaked fluid. that's what causes the pain and the body has to absorb the fluid which takes about two days or less to absorb.
so answer to your question from my own personal experience is that I had no problem having only one ovary. there shouldn't be a problem with conceiving either. as long as your ovary is producing eggs, than you should be able to get pregnant.
you can always have a hormone level test performed by your gynocologist to find out if you're producing enough estrogen too.

good luck hon,
Linda

Thank you for the reply and i'm sorry you that you have had such a difficult time. Mine was just a very large (about 9 cm) benign fluid filled cyst. I had developed the cyst when I got pregnant and they did not want to mess with it while I was pregnant if it wasn't causing me pain. I have not had a chance to talk to my doctor about why he had to remove the ovary but I assume that it's because the cyst had damaged the ovary too. I wonder if they had drained the cyst earlier if it wouldn't have damaged the ovary.

thanks for the quick reply.
I didn't realize yours was so huge. anything over a certain size is of concern to the doctors. thank God yours was benign.

did you ask your dr for the surgical report? it is yours to ask for. it's good to ask your doctors for the surgical report anytime you have surgery so you can keep in your own records.

this way you know which type of fluid filled cyst it was. for future reference of course.

thanks again for the quick reply and I wish you the best.

Linda

I just had my surgery last Tuesday and have not had a chance to talk to him, but I will when I go in for my check up. My doctor tends to be really vague about things and I don't know all the questions I should be asking. I will have to get that report. Anyway, thanks for your advice and sharing your experience.

I thought I would give a quick mention of my child-bearing and menopause years as I had my left ovary removed at the age of 16. I had a normal pregnancy and delivery 4 years later however I did have unexplained secondary infertility and never became pregnant again. My doctor and all the specialists (I saw many) all agreed that the infertility was probably not due to the missing ovary but could not 100% rule it out. I had normal peri-menopause starting at age 45, normal for my family and am still in active peri-menopause 5 years later. My hormone levels have been normal for all stages of my life. Having one ovary removed doesn't change the levels of hormones - you only need one ovary to produce all you need. As long as your remaining ovary is healthy you shouldn't experience periods, pregnancy or menopause any differently than you would with 2 ovaries. Good luck!