Endometriomas or Chocolate Cysts – Picture and Ultrasound


Endometriomas, also known as chocolate cysts, form when endometrial tissue gets on the ovary.  This irritates the ovary, causing the cyst to grow.  In a ultrasound it will look like this:

endometrioma ultrasound

You see how there are two types of materials within the cyst?  One side is solid, dried blood.  The other is a viscous fluid.

This type of cyst leads most doctors to recommend surgery.  It is very hard  to tell whether a cyst is endometrial or cancerous when you do the ultrasound.  Often endometrial cysts are septated – that is, they have walls.  They may appear solid on the ultrasound due to dried blood.  There is often several on one ovary.

Plus, endometriosis causes your CA-125 levels to be elevated.  This is also a sign of ovarian cancer.   The doctor will then want to remove the cyst to rule out that possibility.  Of the surgeries performed, only 10% turn out to be cancerous.

Here is a picture of the removed endometriomas:
chocolate cyst

You can see where it gets the name, “chocolate cyst.”  The brown stuff is actually endometrial lining and dried blood, the same that you would shed normally during a period.

Surgery is generally recommended to treat this type of cyst.  However, it can recur.  It has been shown that increasing your progesterone levels can help thin endometrial tissue.  You can do this through progesterone only birth control pills and natural progesterone creams.

You also want to make sure that your liver is properly removing excess estrogen from your body, as estrogen encourages the growth of endometrial tissue.  This can be done safely through diet and gentle cleansing.

These ovarian cyst pictures courtesy of:  Ultrasound from MD Consult; Picture from BC via Flickr

PCOS Pictures


One of the most complicated ovarian problems a woman can have is PCOS.  Pictures of what is going on can help you understand what your body is going through.  So without further ado…

Here is an ultrasound of an ovary afflicted with multiple cysts.  You can see how they look like bubbles all around the ovary.

PCOS pictures

The next picture show a cross section of a polycystic ovary.  It’s a little scary, so avert your eyes if you are easily grossed out…

cross section of polycystic ovaryIn these PCOS pictures, you can see the little bubbles all around, called follicles.  These are the egg sacs that just never dissolved like they should have.

PCOS can be controlled through diet, exercise, and hormonal therapy.  There is an excellent book I just read by Dr. Walter Futterweit which discusses the possible causes and treatments for PCOS and its symptoms.  Go see it here on Amazon.

Picture from the Geneva Foundation.

In the Interest of Science..


I’ve decided to get over my squeamishness.  For some reason, pictures of actual surgeries and body parts were bothering me a lot towards the end of the last pregnancy.  Now that the baby is five months old, I’m back and ready to share some of the more gruesome ovarian cyst pictures I’ve found.

So be warned!  This may be a little bit much for the weak of heart, but it can help you understand how large an ovarian cyst has to be when it needs to be surgically removed.  Most of them are about 1 to 2 inches in diameter.  Occasionally you get the giant ones, which I will share in the next post.

Here it is….

Avert your eyes, O those weak of heart…

left ovarian cyst

The cyst is as big as the ovary itself.  This picture was part of an illustration for a laparascopy.  What they do in that procedure is drain the fluid out of the cyst, then remove the remaining tissue.  After the fluid is drained, the empty sac is really quite small.

If it were solid inside, they would have to do a traditional abdominal surgery.  That has a great deal more recovery time, but you have to get it done.  Solid cysts have a slightly higher risk of being cancerous (about 10%).

The yellow below the cyst is intestines.  This is why I decided not to become a doctor :)

Of course, if you are interested in naturally treating your cyst before it becomes too big, I’d recommend checking out Ovarian Cyst Miracle.  I’ve found I like that book better than the previous one I was recommending – it’s a little easier to follow.