CAN You Have BC AND Ovarian Cancer at the Same Time????

Ok, slow down, breathe.... I think the chances of this being ovarian cancer are very slim.  Are you taking tamoxifen?  That can cause ovarian cysts.  I was having some pain in my lower abdomen last fall and was diagnosed with "functional" ovarian cysts.  My OB/GYN says that its common for women on tamoxifen to develop them.  I had a follow up ultrasound about a month later and they had resolved.  Tamoxifen can also cause endometrial changes which could be causing pain.  Hang in there!  I hope your doc sees you today.

Sharon ~ It seems to me that if your ovaries have been used to ovulating regurlarly, and then suddenly stopped becuase of chemo and tamoxifen, they would be sensitive and "cystic".  Try not to get yourself too stressed and get some reassurance from your GYN.  Take a deep breath honey.

Okay pupfoster and cs34,

I'm also one hoping not to end up in record books!  I'm so glad I found this thread because I'm going through the exact same scare.  My ob-gyn sent me for a routine pelvic ultrasound (I finished chemo and just finished with radiation but haven't started any tamox or AI yet)  and they found a complex cyst on my ovary. Ob-gyn is very concerned saying that post menopausal (I am only post menopausal because I'm in chemo-pause--I was pregnant and breastfeeding right before my bc diagnosis, so I'm actually probably quite pre-menopausal if it weren't for the chemo) women don't form functional cysts because they aren't releasing eggs.  So I'm freaked out that now they've discovered ovarian cancer or breast cancer mets just 2 months after finishing chemo.  So then I wonder if it is cancer, was it bigger before chemo and the chemo got some but not all of it?  How would they ever stage me since I just had chemo?  Which would be worse?  Ovarian cancer or Breast cancer mets???  Gosh, this whole thing just has me so worked up. 

My regular onc doesn't seem to be as worried about it, but then she deals with cancer all the time!  What's one more patient with mets to her????????  She agreed that in post menopausal women, cysts are rare, but she said that for chemo-induced menopause, they just don't really know what happens.  If it truly caused menopause, there wouldn't be the cases in which fertility comes back.  No one really knows exactly what effects it has on the ovaries and hormones related to fertility. 

I've got a consultation with a gyn-onc tomorrow.  Most likely, we'll be setting up a date to have ovaries and uterus removed (family history of uterine cancer) regardless of what this cyst is.  I was already kind of going in this direction, anyways, it just would have been later down the road. 

BTW, I had the ca27.29 and ca125 done--both came back normal. 

Sharon, I saw your other message about not having the results ready yet--sorry you still have to wait longer.  The waits are the worst!  I think my ob-gyn is calling me "menopausal" because I am currently in the chemo-induced menopause.  I don't think he means it will necessarily be permanent.  I doubt if it will anyway, just because of my age (39) and the fact that I was just pregnant right before diagnosis (baby was 6 months old--yeah, so much for enjoying the babyhood years--I just wanted time to pass so I could be done with chemo and all!)  My appt tomorrow is with a gyn-onc.  My  regular ob-gyn had told me that the normal protocol in my situation was to "watch & wait"  but because of my history, he was going to skip the "watch & wait" step and just send me directly to the gyn-onc.  For all I know, the cyst in question could be completely gone (but knowing my luck lately, it's probably still there and bigger...sigh...)  but I guess since we had already been talking about eventually doing the surgery/removal, it probably will be best to just do it now and be done with it.  I had the ultrasound done on 2/11 and I'm just now getting in to see the gyn-onc anyways--if you ask me, that already fills the "watch & wait" period.  It's been a month.  I think usually they wait 6 weeks and then recheck. So I'm really not that much ahead by "skipping" the "watch & wait" step that my ob-gyn was trying to avoid.  

I will definately post after tomorrow's appt and let you and everyone else know what's next, but my guess is I won't know anything else until after the surgery.  I'm not exactly sure of the reason(s) but I guess they don't usually biopsy ovarian cysts.  They just remove them and check then. I guess it has something to do with possibly rupturing the cyst and spreading the cells (oh joy) but I don't know for sure. 

I  have been wondering this same thing, I was having abdominal pain and bloating when my family physician sent me to the ob/gyn who sent me for the mammogram and the rest is, as they say, history, lol.

After a colonoscopy & egd I am finally having gynecological testing. Transvaginal ultrasound showed an enlarged ovary (I only have one left from a partial hysterectomy in 2002). My gyno says if I was post menapausal she would want to remove it right away. Since blood work showed the ovary was not in menapause she stated she was comfortable watching it for 3 months for me to recover from my exchange surgery (April 7th) and doing another ultrasound. At that time she wants to go ahead and remove the ovary. I did have CA-125 but my level was within normal range.

I am sorry that you are having difficulty. Hopefully you will be able to get some answers that will put your mind at ease.