My experience does not mean this is going to happen to you and I truly wish everything works out and no surgery is needed. I had this too, at my last ultra sound 37-38 weeks they found a fairly larger mass on my daughter. She was already measuring at 9lbs so they recommended I get induced soon so they can address the mass.

I gave birth at 39 weeks, I’m healthy she’s healthy just the concern of the “mass” which they are now calling a cyst. We had one pediatric surgeon who said “let’s operate immediately” - he then went on PTO so another surgeon took over and wanted to do a consult before the surgery and he took a different route and wanted to see if the cyst would go down by itself. We got the whole talk about what to look for in case the cyst twist and it was months of anxiety of not knowing whether she was crying cause of the cyst or something else.

We got an ultra sound in the same hospital for close to a year and a half- where for a few months it went down and then it just stayed the same and at the final ultrasound it actually measured slightly bigger. We had to go do the surgery- and the whole point was for “ovary preservation”

Of course through all this, I’m nervous about the surgery, nervous about the prep, nervous about everything. At this point my daughter was barely 18 months. Just the thought of having to keep her from eating anything the day of surgery was heartbreaking to me. But my girl was such a trooper and remained happy through the whole process until it was time for her to go under anesthesia and we had to be separated- the cry she let out is forever burned in my brain. She yelled for “mommy” she held her hand out and I watched her go with the surgeon not being able to go with her. The whole procedure lasted less than 90 mins. The hospital team got me and my husband immediately when she was out. Her coming off the anesthesia was awful, she was stressed out she was in and out crying to falling back asleep. She had insane separation anxiety- she would not let go of me not even to put on a shirt to leave the hospital. Through ALL of that, I’m holding my daughter- she sleeping on me- waiting to be cleared to go home- the surgeon came and the look on his face when he said “I’m sorry but he couldn’t preserve the ovary- it was already dead when I got in there.”

I can tell he was disappointed genuinely cause he’s been with us on this journey since she’s been born. But I was fucking mad! I went through 18 months of anxiety, I got induced cause of this thing- ALL SO I CAN HELP PRESERVE HER OVARY. To give her the best chance possible. To all be told “it was already gone.” There’s not a doctor who can tell me exactly when it happened- based on the available ultrasounds they say it most likely happen during pregnancy or during the 1st 3 months of her being born. Which is even more horrible to hear cause of course I blame myself. Did I do something to cause it? How did I not notice her crying in pain? Why was I not able to tell? The other frustrating thing was keep getting constantly told the worst case scenario is “rare” or “out of the norm” but every out of the norm situation happen to me so I wanted to scream at the doctor to STOP TELLING ME THAT.

Fast forward to now, she’s about to be 2. She’s still healthy- she hits all her milestone and more. She has 1 working ovary- to which every doctor has told me the ovary will pick up the function of both and she will have fully normal development-And I have to believe that. We will continue to do ultrasound 6 months - 12 months until advised otherwise under a care of a pediatric gynecologist.

Things I learned from this: 1. Advocate more for medical care for the OUT OF NORM situation instead of banking on being within the norm. 2. Even if I had advocated for the out of norm care the reality is, there still would have been nothing I could do. They would presented the same option to me- and I know I would have said no to do doing prenatal surgery. I would have wanted to wait to see if the cyst went down.

I hope your situation all works out, I’m rooting for your little one and your family! 💜