scared again, my lady parts

[lindzanne]

Hi, I havent posted in a long time and have been doing really well, but the last two weeks have been gradually working myself into a fit. Ever since I started birth control about 5 months ago I have had a pain in my lower right pelvis, sometimes lower back too. It was never there before except the one day I always ovulated like clockwork. It was VERY painful at first, gradually got better, and now only comes and goes. Sometimes I will go two or three weeks without feeling anything, then my period comes and bam its there again until a little after my period is over.
Now for the last few weeks I have had nausea on and off, diarrhea, burning pain after eating certain things, I have an appetite and don't fill up fast but I am scared I have ovarian cancer.
I have had two major episodes over the last ten years where I thought I had an ulcer after long term stomach pain and problems, the doctors always chalked it up to anxiety which at the time I didn't even realize I had but looking back realize I had a lot bottled up. Now Im right in the middle of facing my depression and anxiety but that means actually experiencing a lot of anxiety! And I have had a hugely stressful month that I thought i was dealing with really well, but don't have anyone to talk to about my anxiety with so do a lot the work of fighting it on my own.
I have horrible HA and one of my focuses is ovarian cancer. I had a manual pelvic exam when I got the birth control, and had had one three months prior, both times my ovaries were "normal shape and size", my doctor knew about my HA and was very patient and said his words, "theres no way you have cancer." But how could he know without an ultrasound? Could I really have so much nausea and pain from anxiety (and I have read the page about stomach problems on here, it's just hard to believe!!)? Why would this pain start only when I started birth control? I will have a doctors appointment soon and will bring this all up, but am scared of the answer. Could a tumor be growing, even though the pain comes and goes, and resting on my tummy? Cant these tumors hide from a manual pelvic exam? Cant they grow really fast?
Im going nuts. Someone please answer. I hate seeing a hundred people have looked at my post and not replied. :weep: Thank you in advance.

[Carla louise]

Hey, what birth control method are you using hun? x

[AntiLove_SuperStar]

If this started after the start of birth control, then I'd say its something to do with that..possibly. Therefore you need to tell your doctor this, because not all birth control suits everyone. If its the coil you're using, its especially important to tell your doctor..they can cause internal problems (though not often).

I can (for sure) however tell you it is definitely possible to feel incredibly ill from anxiety alone. One month a couple of years ago I lost nearly a stone in weight and anything I ate passed right through me (sorry to be graphic, but you know what I mean!) and I got full very easily. When I resolved my source of stress, it went.

[lindzanne]

Im on the pill, lo ovral. very low dose. Thanks for your answers.

[lindzanne]

Seriously? Virtually nobody?

[AntiLove_SuperStar]

It is unlikely that you have a tumour..you had two clear exams recently. Pain can be a symptom, but weird aches, pains etc can certainly be caused by a new birth control.

Obviously no-one on here can diagnose you for certain, but I'd bet quite a lot of money that you do not have ovarian cancer, since your doctor said "there's no way you have cancer". If you feel like you are going mad over this (and health anxiety is a bugger, in fact I've got an ultrasound scheduled soon I requested for something similar...suddenly extremely painful withdrawal bleeds, I want to rule out a fibroid or endometriosis) you can request an ultrasound. If nothing else, this will communicate how worried you are and if your doctor is halfway reasonable he'll take it from there.

[AntiLove_SuperStar]

Another lovely anecdote...before I went on Yasmin, the pill I'm currently on and have been for 4 years, I tried Marvelon. Its a standard combined pill, "take it for 21 days, stop for 7, 21 days..etc". I started taking it, was on about Day 6.

Then I started bleeding. And bleeding, and bleeding, and bleeding. I stopped taking it (as you would!) but eventually I had to be given pills they give to patients post-surgery to stop it anyway. Pills can cause very whack things to happen. There was no explanation for it.

[lindzanne]

Thanks so much for your reassuring replies. I tell myself Im ok, and most of the time it works, but not lately. The sad thing is, this is the only pill so far that hasnt made me balloon out, naseous constantly, or super depressed! So there are so many good things about it, yet this one bad thing.

[AntiLove_SuperStar]

When's your doctor's appointment? Glad I reassured you somewhat!

[lindzanne]

Next week or so, I have to go out of town for a wedding so not this week, I have to make an appointment to renew my meds so its a good way to force me to actually go and deal with it.

[Rocket Girl]

Hi there, I read your post and firstly want to reasure you that I genuinely dont think there is anything sinister going on. But do go check it out with your doctor. Before you go to see him you may want to record times and pain severity chart to see if there is a pattern occuring. Sounds silly but it could just be a case of wind after you eat certain things or even if you dont eat for prolongued periods.
You don`t mention your age so this could be that if are under 25 and first time on the pill it could be your body adjusting to the new hormone levels.
Another symptom you are showing is something typical which occurs with PID Pelvic Infamatory Disease, this flare up and down as you discribe, it can be treated.

[lindzanne]

Thanks Rocket Girl, I have actually thought about PID, because right when this started I was getting over a horrible bladder/and or pelvic infection (they never did figure out exactly what it was) but it took over a month for the pain to go away. This one sided pain just kind of stayed around but it seemed to also coinsided with my starting birth control. I have definitely thought maybe I still had a little pocket of infection. I just made an appointment for tomorrow, and am scared out of my wits, but am keeping cool about it (God knows how!).

[zenwin]

I know I was screened for Ovarian problems this way:

They took a blood test called a CA-125 (you can google that term for what the norm is... I want to say up to 40 maybe but I could be wrong)

and

They did an ultrasound. Silly me, I thought they were going to smear my tummy with jelly and roll that wand over me... um, wrong LOL! They put a condom on the wand and inserted it in. Yep. No soft music, no sweet-nothings... just lubed it up and in it went. LOL! But hey.. it wasn't as bad as all that. It was just a feeling of fullness more than anything and they could see the uterus and the ovaries, etc.

If you're concerned -- these would be the things I'd suggest you get done to rule out anything major going on in there.

Hope I helped you some! Good luck, sweetie
-Leslie

[lindzanne]

I had a doctors appointment, and have been referred to get an ultrasound, have been kind of wondering how that will go so thanks for the warning, Leslie! My doctor is very sweet about my anxiety, thinks it is nothing scary, just a cyst, but couldn't feel it, so sent me for the ultrasound.....now I just have to be brave enough to make the appointment!

[Cell block H fan]

I had the bloated feeling, even after drinking a cup of tea years ago, it actually hung around for a couple of months, I was googling all the time then & was convinced I had ovarian cancer. It went away eventually after lots of reassurance from the doctor. But I never did find out what it was..

[chickpea]

I had HA about ovarian cancer a couple of years ago, after constant lower right abdominal pain, bloating etc.
I was sent for an ultrasound (not the internal sort!), and was declared perfectly normal.:)

Funnily enough, the pain went after that...and it's only come back now I'm on meds for anxiety/depression:whistles:

I'm sure you have nothing to worry about. Even if you have an internal ultrasound, it's not in the slightest bit painful - at worst, it's a tiny bit uncomfortable.:)

[lindzanne]

Thank you for all the answers and support you guys! :flowers: