What are the reasons for taking out ovaries?

Yeah sure does, I'm having mine removed as soon as I'm done with rads & hopefully the arimidex will take care of the rest of that estrogen.  Also, if you are BRCA + you stand a higher chance of developing ovarian cancer.

Yeah, that's my understanding.  ER+ means your bc feeds off the estrogen being produced in the body to remove the ovaries removes that estrogen.  You still having some floating around being produced by adrenal glands, etc. So, the AI's take care of that little bit being made.   I had brca tesing done before starting chemo, it shows whether you carry the bc gene or not.  I have two girls and was very interested in knowing for them but also just to know.  I'm the only one in my family who has ever had bc though, so it cames as a bit of a shock when it was +.

there is an association between bc and ovarian cancer....reduce your risk for oc.....if not in menopause, slams you there and then you can take AI's.  I had ooph after bilat, chemo and rads....don't regret it at all as its one less thing to worry about....but I was 50 and heading toward menopause prior to Dx...chemo stopped my periods.

Hi girls,

Had my ooph in june 2010, don;t regret it. I was 98% ER pos, I know we don't have solid data on this subject. Does it decrease reacurrance or not. It just seems really logical to me, take as much est.out, so it can't feed any of those free radicals that could be floating around right?  I will

say, being post meno at 42 is not the greatest thing, but the risk of a reacurrance scares me more then, mood swings, and heart problems. You know its such a personal decision, and you really have to talk to your dr. about your personal situation. My cancer was very agressive,

so I had to be very agressive right back!!

I need to raise my beautiful kids, and grow old with hubby!! My theory is if it can harm me and I don't need it take it out!!!LOL

Huggssssss

Stephanie

Hi,

i had mine removed june 10 after 18 mths my periods returned my onc wanted to stop the production of oestrogen as I am strongly er/pr+ he was going to use zoladex, but I asked for my ovaries to be removed instead. 

I have 3 teens and had been on tamox for 12 months, he agreed to this straight away. After seeing the gynea he also agreed this was the best decision for me, I was already having hot flushes etc and these have continued i am now just 43 and on arimidex.

For me this was the best solution.

If you're BRCA+, you're at high risk for ovarian cancer (though how high the risk depends on if you're BRCA1 or BRCA2+, and also where on the BRCA gene your specific mutation lies).  This is the main reason to take out ovaries.  Also, some oncs believe if you're ER+ and cannot take Tamox for some reason but hormonal therapy is indicated for your situation, and you don't want to take Lupron to temporarily shut down your ovaries, it MAY be beneficial to consider ovary removal.

However, unless you're at high risk for OV CA, there are a lot of reasons why removing your ovaries is contra-indicated.

Keep in mind all estrogen is not created equal.  Estradiol is the "bad" estrogen.  There are other forms of estrogen that aren't going to affect your risk of cancer.  That's why it's ok for many of us ER+ women to use topical estrogen vaginally.

A certain amount of estrogen is going to exist in your body even if you've gone to the extreme of removing your ovaries AND take AIs (trust me, I know from experience and from regular measuring of estradiol levels).   You just want that estradiol to metabolize into benign forms of estrogen and get flushed out of your system as rapidly and efficiently as possible.

Ladie's

I have a friend. her first dx was at 29, 5 years later bc again. She met my brillant BS by  chance,

My BS said, "you have had too bouts of bc in five years at your age, somthings wrong!"

She tested for the braca1 and braca2 gene, she was pos. My bs recommended a prophilatic

hystorectomy. Sure enough they found cancer in her fallopian tubes that had met. to her ovaries!

Third bout of chemo, did well for three years, just had a fourth reacurrance a few months ago.

she's doing great because she is an amazing human being. She speaks all over the country on the gene, there is belife that there could and probebly is a third and fourth gene we don't even know about yet, that is scarey for all. I am not telling you this storie to alarm, i am just saying,

our goal is to live, I know having your ovaries out can suck, but so does leaving your children with out a mom or husband with out a wife. This bc is a sneaky beast! I just feel we need to fight like hell to do all we can to up our survival rates, its like buying ins. we may not need it , but man if we do we are so glad we had it!!  Hope I did not offend anyone, I know my opinion may be more agressive bc of my dx. However my friends org.dx, at 29 she had no lyph  involvment at all and is

now in stage IV, doing Awsome!!!

Please do what you  feel in your heart, but lets be smart, if est feeds your cancer, to me its a no brainer! Get them out! Just my opinion. a strong felt one though, I love my bc sista's, lets be old ladie's together!!!!!

Wow, I really do ramble sorry!

blessings

Stephanie

Kim! Great news, I hope this is your answer. Fingers crossed, let us know.

Kim-  I totally understand your position.  I would rather do a relatively safe surgical procedure than inject drugs into my system long term that might have other SE.  I would not be above "exaggerating" about side effects from the Zolodex (read what they are before your appointment).  surely they would not insist you stay on it if you can't tolerate it!  Best of luck.

When I was diagnosed with BC in 2005, I found out that my ca was triple positive. After 6 months of chemo, (AC and then T), I was started on a five-year plan of Tamoxifen, in addition to a year of Herceptin. I was 37 at the time and no where near menopause. While my periods did stop for a while during the AC, they came back during the Taxol time and never went away again. I had zero side effects with the Herceptin and zero side effects with the Tamox. Once the 5 years were up, my Onc. suggested a BSO as my next step. I had those out in Dec. 2011 (laparoscopically is the way to go if you can), and opted to leave the uterus in since I had a U/S prior to the ooph and it was normal. I had 2 consults with 2 different OB/GYN's ...the first one acted as though I had lost my mind by wanting my O's out being that I was 43 and had no GYN issues (apparently she didn't get the BC and ovary connection)...the second one had no problems with scheduling me for what is basically an elective surgery. My insurance had no issues paying for it either (BC/BS of MA at the time), since it was nothing compared the the $$$ they already dished out for the tests, surgeries, and chemo.

The surgery itself was a breeze - in at 10:30 , surgery at noon, discharged home at 4 pm - 2 little scars in my abdomen and one hidden one in my umbilicus. A little nauseous once I was home and uncomfortable for a few days...was given a script for Percocet but never filled it as Motrin 800mg seemed enough to take the edge off. I was up and about doing housework/laundry by the 3rd day and back to work 2 weeks later. The surgeon recommended 4 weeks off from work but I felt good enough after 17 days off. I went back on "light duty" which for me equated to no lifting patients over 10 lbs (so basically no lifting of patients at all) and no wearing of lead gowns for 2 weeks. Overall not an unpleasant experience as surgeries go...now the surgical menopause was a tad difficult to deal with (but that's another story, LOL).

One of the reasons I am removing mine I had three cancers developing in one breast, one was IDC, second was mixture od IDC and ILC and third one was ILC (smallest one). There is correlation between  ILC and ovary cancer.