How To Manage PCOS And Ovarian Cysts: Is There A Difference Between Them

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If you want to know how to manage PCOS, then it is also important to learn about the different types of cysts that are related to ovaries. Ovarian cysts are fluid-filled sacs that develop on the ovaries. Mostly they are related to menstrual hormone changes and usually settle on their own within a few weeks without any treatment. Ovarian cysts often don’t cause any symptoms.

However, if they become bigger or don\’t settle on their own, you may need treatment. Factors that increase your risk of developing ovarian cysts include hormone changes (including fertility drugs), pregnancy, endometriosis, and a severe pelvic infection that spreads to your ovaries. Most ovarian cysts are small, non-cancerous (benign), and cause no symptoms.

However, some ovarian cyst symptoms may include pain and irregular periods. There is a difference between PCOS, cystic ovaries, and ovarian cysts in women of childbearing age.

Different types of Ovarian cysts

Functional ovarian cysts

These are of two types- Follicular and corpus luteum

Follicular cysts are a type of ovarian cyst that usually occurs in women who are receiving infertility treatment.

Corpus luteum cysts are those which occur when the corpus luteum fills with fluid or blood to form a cyst. Blood-filled cysts are also called hemorrhagic cysts.

Dermoid cysts

Also called benign mature cystic teratomas, these comprise a large percentage of ovarian cysts and grow larger than two inches in diameter. These types of cysts can be described by an odd array of mass contents such as hair, teeth, and bone. This is because dermoid cysts develop from cells that make eggs in the ovary. It is estimated that 1-in-10 such cysts reside in both ovaries, and may run in families due to hereditary factors.

Cystadenomas

These develop from cells that cover the outer part of the ovary. There are different types. For example, serous cystadenomas fill with a thin fluid and mucinous cystadenomas fill with a thick mucous-type fluid. These types of cysts are often attached to an ovary by a stalk rather than growing within the ovary itself. Some grow very large. They are usually benign but some are cancerous.

Endometriomas

Cysts often occur in women with endometriosis. Cysts form when tissue from the uterus, called endometrium, develops elsewhere in the body. Endometriosis, a medical term for a uterine disorder that affects about ten percent of women, can cause painful ovulation and menstruation that may be cyclical or irregular, as well as chronic pelvic pain. Though typically benign, both PCOS and ovarian cysts can create ovulation problems for women.

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS

PCOS is characterized by many small, typically harmless ovarian cysts. PCOS develops in women with a hormone imbalance that affects ovulation. Those with PCOS often develop period problems, reduced fertility, extra body hair, being overweight or obese, and acne. For more information on PCOS, check out the related leaflet called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

Cystadenomas

Cystic ovaries don’t come from mature eggs, but rather grow alongside them. Possible presentations are dependent on the fluid they have secreted. Some are benign, while others have cultivated cancerous cells. These cysts can grow large and attached to an ovary via a stalk-like structure growing outside the ovary than within it. Though benign, some can grow very large and be cancerous.

Some growths can be tumours

However, it is important to note that there are other rare types of ovarian cysts. There are also various types of benign ovarian tumours that are solid and not cystic (do not have fluid in the middle).

What does an ovarian cyst feel like?

Ovarian cysts can be diagnosed through a pelvic exam or ultrasound scan for another reason. Cysts rarely cause symptoms but they can rupture and release fluids leading to an infection.

If you have symptoms suggestive of an ovarian cyst, your doctor may examine your tummy (abdomen) and perform an internal (vaginal) examination. They may be able to feel an abnormal swelling which may be a cyst. With PCOS, distinguishing symptoms are less specific yet no less concerning.

How to diagnose the type of cyst

Ultrasound can confirm an ovarian cyst, but it is important to know the difference between PCOS, cystic ovaries, and ovarian cysts. Cystic ovaries are the result of periods in which eggs inside the ovaries aren’t released. Ovarian Cysts can be found by ultrasound, but doctors usually make a diagnosis by looking at how the follicles (egg chambers), measure up with recent ultrasounds.

Many cases of ovarian cancer present initially, as an ovary cyst. A blood test called a CA125 test is often done as well as an ultrasound scan to determine if it is cancerous.

PCOS sufferers regularly experience ovarian cysts. Blood tests can rule out cancer, but it is still wise to complete ultrasound scans regularly.

For the most common type of benign ovarian cysts, an ultrasound scan is needed. It may also be required to get a computerized tomography (CT) scan or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan in some cases.

To learn more on How to Manage PCOS, click here.

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You know that you are living in a messed up country when a state’s Chief Minister who says, “I feel that the marriage age of daughters should be increased from 18 to 21 years”, also says, “A new system will be used to safeguard working women, under which any woman moving out of her house for her work will register herself at the local police station, and she will be tracked for her safety”.

Main roun ya hasun, karun main kya karun?

While I contemplate if I should laugh or cry, I realize that a surprise reaction is now normal for us as women of this country. How is this a solution, I wonder? Instead of coming up with a system to track harassers, molesters and rape accused, here the onus is again on the woman to sacrifice her liberty, privacy, and her fundamental rights of basic existence to protect herself.

As women continue to pave their way with struggles and difficulties in a man’s world, and while the men in authority struggle to find ways to curb crimes against women, the easiest solution they have found is to cage women. Not just now. Every time. How easy right?!

The idea of always monitoring women, snatching their liberty and privacy is an easier solution than questioning the incapacity of the police to do their jobs. Instead, a system is devised to track working women, just like how animals are fitted with a tracking system or devices with a GPS. This is nothing but an apparatus to make us women conform all the more than we already were.

Being eve teased? Don’t wear provocative clothes.

Getting raped? Don’t go out at night.

Men will be men, they will commit crimes and rapes.

You just need to be more careful as a woman.

Because men can’t keep it in their pants or control their provocative gaze at lady parts, let’s just ask women to cover up themselves, no matter the comfort level or the weather conditions. That way we men won’t get tempted to look at them.

And when women question this we will objectify them by equating them candies and precious stones which need to be covered or protected.

In a country where we already have it hard to live a free life as a woman, think what will happen if this system comes into place?

Imagine these scenarios:

· If a woman refuses to get tracked and later gets harassed, she will be held responsible.

· Moral policing will happen based on where they go, what they do.

· As always, it will be easy to blame women for any untoward incidents because “she meets so many men, goes to clubs, drinks,” etc.

· Parents and husbands will bribe police officers and to monitor their daughters and wives.

Men in authority have mansplained women’s roles to suit their agenda. I really want to know why women are not involved in such decision-making? Oh wait, they are! Remember how a senior member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) suggested, “Women should avoid going out after dark,” after a 50-year-old Anganwadi worker was allegedly gang-raped in a temple, brutalized and killed the village in UP’s Badaun? She even said that this incident wouldn’t have occurred had a male member accompanied her.

Are you laughing or crying now? Wait, here are a few other times politicians have made some bizarre statements that continue to attack basic human rights:

· Boys will be boys, they commit mistakes- Samajwadi Party supremo

· Two men raping a woman cannot be termed as gang rape- Former Karnataka Home Minister

· If a woman is caught (in a rape case), then both she and the boy should be punished- SP’s State President

· Best way to curb India’s population growth is to provide electricity to Indian villages so that couples spend their time watching TV instead of procreating and increasing the population- Former Health and Family Welfare Minister

· Crimes against women won’t happen in “Bharat” or the rural areas of the country. You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gang-rape or sex crimes- RSS Chief

· Women shouldn’t participate in protests- Chief Justice

· Hindu women shouldn’t do interfaith marriage- UP CM

· Women should just be housewives- RSS Chief

· Girls can reproduce at 15, so why should their marital age be increased from 18 to 21?- MP Congress Leader

Shocked yet? Let me tell you one more.

Daniel Shravan, a filmmaker, had suggested that every woman should carry a condom at a rapist’s disposal so that they can offer them a hassle-free experience. He also took to Facebook (the post has now been deleted) where he posted a number of messages where he proposed a “rape without violence” scheme which will at least assure women that they will not die. This was after the December 2019 Hyderabad’s vet doctor’s rape and murder.

This is the mentality of many. They refuse to see the problem and when they do, they try to shift blame or come up with convenient, easy solutions that benefit the perpetrator instead of the victim. And if they are people in power, the solution should be one that makes their work easier.

Also Read https://infano.care/domestic-violence-cases-see-no-end/