Ovarian Cysts

Through the ski season I felt a strong rib pain that i thought was fr4om a tumble I took at a race practice the week before. It turned out this 'rib pain' that we thought was a fracture, then pleurisy, was actually a tennis ball sized (6 cm) ovarian cyst on my right ovary. It was large enough that it led me to the ER, thinking it was appendicitis, and then shocked an ultrasound technician when we discovered it was offsetting my uterus. In early February I went in for a laparoscopic cystectomy to remove the cyst. Everything seemed alright and the GYN said my ovary should be fine. In two weeks I was cleared to do whatever I wanted and had the stitches taken out, and I returned to school the following Monday. After taking it slow for awhile i was able to go skiing and my abs started feeling 100% again. I have three small incisions, one invisible one in my bellybutton, one on my lower left side along the pant line that might be the only visible one, and one in the center on the bikini line. The surgery may have been small, but was still a surgery, and threw my whole body off. I suffered with pain for a little while, and dealt with nausea and swelling at the site of the surgery. After the two week mark I tried to return to school once but couldn't make it and instead waited until the following Monday so I had the weekend to rest. I suffered with a lot of bleeding after the actual surgery, but it went away within a week and I was only left with cramps. A month later I had the worst period cramps ever, but they were followed with 7 days of heavy bleeding and then they cleared up after that. You may be asking why mine was removed when most people's burst or are reabsorbed. Mine had plagued me with symptoms for two months, was fairly large, and keeping me from school. Therefor we decided not to take the step of waiting to see if it would reabsorb. I thought I felt multiple cysts since then, and upon returning to the GYN we decided it could have been, but since she did an ultrasound and didn't see anything more, we would keep an eye on it. An option for me would be to go on birth control because it helps reabsorb cysts and reduce how many arrive. However, birth control and antibiotics both reduce each other's effectiveness and we decided instead of throwing my body off, we would treat the Lyme and put my on a diet. A few natural things we are now going to try to keep the cysts at bay- keep my weight in the lower range of my BMI, apply progesterone cream to my inner forearms mid-cycle to assist with hormone regulation, reduce caffeine, sugars, lactose, and increase exercise. We shall see overtime how this will work.