rather than asking if the question was helpful to me, i would prefer to see an answer from someone in the medical community
Hi There,
There are definitely situations where there are several possible approaches. For young women with pain and ovarian cysts, the most common approach is watchful waiting so as not to do unnecessary surgery.
Commonly, one would consider adding a medical intervention to suppress ovarian cycling such as the birth control pill or even inducing artificial menopause with something like lupron. If the pain and cysts go away, then it is usually reasonable to continue on the pill.
Now if you have a strong family history of ovarian cancer, it is important to have a careful risk assessment. I would recommend a consultation with a genetic counselor to fully evaluate your family tree and understand exactly what are your statistical chances for ovarian cancer. There are several blood tests that check for gene mutations. Depending on your family history, it may be reasonable for you to have this testing. If you are at high risk for ovarian cancer, the current recommendation is for the prophylactic surgical removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes. The age that this is done is usually 10 years earlier than the age of that your family members developed their cancers.
So say your mother got ovarian cancer at age 45, you should consider having your ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in your mid 30's. On the other hand if all your relatives had cancers after the menopause like in their 70's, that is a very different risk pattern.
Now if you are in pain and medical interventions are not helping, then surgical evaluation by laparoscopy makes sense
best wishes