Large Painful Cysts

Autopsywoman · 05-27-2004, 06:23 AM

I'm wondering if anyone out there has huge Cysts like me. My story is below: I'm a newbie to this forum but not to PCOS. I was diagnosed (finally) in early 2000, right before my husband joined the military. But I began having symptoms way back in 1996. It took me 4 long painful years to find a doctor who was willing to do more than just look at me and say "you are fat and need to quit eating so much and exercise". When the disorder first began to affect me I was a healthy size 12-14, doing karate and walking every night. I ate a low carb diet and was by all appearances healthy. Then all of a sudden (in less than a year) I gained over 100 pounds, was depressed, sick and had constant abdominal pain. Trips to the emergency room first brought only diagnoses of PID, which were not accurate. Finally they started doing ultrasounds and discovered that I had lots of small cysts, and also a very BIG one that was causing the pain. After my diagnoses in 2000 I went on Metformin. In 3 months I lost 70 pounds and was doing pretty good again. I was on 2500 mg. after the initial testing phase. I was also taking Aldactone for the testosterone levels and they put me on Vaniqa for the Hirsuitism. The large cysts went away for a long time. Recently though - about 7 months ago...I began to get them again. My dosage of Metformin has been lowered to 2000 because I lost another 30 pounds. I was also diagnosed in the past year with Type II Diabetes and Hypothyroidism. I got a cyst in December that was so large I had to go to the Emergency Room - it was the size of a tennis ball and the pain was excruciating. My doctors say they can't figure out why I have such large cysts, as the normal "PCOS" profile is alot of small cysts. But I have them nonetheless. Anyone else out there have this issue to deal with? I'm looking for a successful way to rid myself of them and the docs don't want to do a hysterectomy.