My Cyst Story

My life with cysts started with a bout of mild food poisoning: I had been to a baby shower and eaten way too many cocktail sausages! After a very uncomfortable evening with my new boyfriend round, and a coffee the next morning, I realised that I should give dairy (and sausages!) a miss for a while. So I moved over to soya milk, knowing little about soy at the time. Given the fact Starbucks served it, I thought it was fine to drink one or two soya lattes each day. Fast forward a year and a half, I was over a stone heavier with growing intensity of period pains. Now I reckon I tolerated bad period pains for over two years and, while I did that, all my efforts for weight loss fell flat on their face. 

 

How my cyst came to light was that after the first year of period pain and weight gain, I decided to get a personal trainer. One in my cheap gym but at £40 a session I thought it would be a good place to start. This experience was the start of me questioning if what I was being told was right. I was told by this trainer to eat a ridiculous amount of protein including protein shakes and workout six days a week for over 45 mins each session. Now maybe its because I don’t have the passion but that did not work out for me. I felt I was being pushed to be a weightlifter and that was how I was going to be thinner. Now I know that muscle is much leaner than fat but also to maintain muscle takes a huge amount of dedication. But I gave it a good shot, I started in May…. pushed myself so hard I sprained my ankle in the July but was still going in the December. During this year of pushing myself in the gym and weightlifting I got physically stronger but with the exhaustion this approach put on me, my panic attacks returned and I was getting panicky about going to the gym. And in this year of busting my hump I had lost about five pounds. By the April I had given up, I found that the trainer only really understood one way of training… the way it worked for him and wasn’t interested in me or adapting it for me. So I stopped and started out on my own. I readjusted the long work out for shorter ones and re-found my love of walking.  Still throughout this time I was struggling every month with period pains and taking too many pain killers to help. 

 

Finally I went to the doctors where I was totally fobbed off with "do you want stronger drugs" and a smear test. Well I took the smear test as I am a big advocate of getting checked out. I went for the smear and talked to a nurse about my intense pain on one side, upset stomach and dizziness and she was fuming that I had not been offered a scan. She rebooked me in with my original doctor and said I needed to flat out demand a scan. And that is what I did. Scan came around and I had a 5 cm cyst in my left ovary… I was pretty shocked and scared but at the same time, it was nice to know that I didn’t just have a shockingly low pain threshold for period pains. The doctor who did the scan said then I would need another scan in 8 weeks and if it hadn't gone by then I would need surgery. An alarm went off in my head, I did not want surgery if there was any way to get rid of this naturally!

 

I went home and started to look online and a lot on Pintrest to see what you can do to get rid of cysts without surgery:

 

First, things I gave up:

Soya: I had no idea that soya increased estrogenic activity in men and women and had most likely caused or aggravated the cyst.

Meat: I gave up meat for eight weeks unless it was organic as the antibiotics and hormones given to farmed animals can also increase the hormone activity in your body.

Dairy: I gave up dairy for the same reason as meat and only ate organic eggs if available. 

Plastic: Chemicals in plastic such as BPA and BPC emit hormones which are transferred into our food especially if it heated in a plastic container and the use of plastic water bottles. 

 

Second, what I took up:

Apple Cider Vinegar (with the mother): Daily I would drink a cocktail of 2 tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar and tsp of blackstrap molasses in a pint of warm water. Why these things? Starting with blackstrap molasses - it is high in antioxidants, is anti-inflammatory, rich in iron and helps with digestion. Apple Cider Vinegar  has a huge amount of health benefits but the one for cysts is that it is antibacterial and helps flush out harmful toxins. The mixture of the two is believed to help shrink ovarian cysts.

Diindolylmethane or DIIM: This is a substance which your body creates when digesting certain cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.  This helps get rid of excess hormones in your body which is pretty much what cysts are. I took both a supplement and ate as much veg as possible during the first eight weeks and have since given up the tablets.

Iodine: Reduces oestrogen and detoxifies the oestrogen, it also promotes healthy ovulation. I took a supplement which was one drop in a cup of water.

Castor oil packs: This sounds something out of the dark ages but I do think it helps. Castor oil needs to be drunk with care but put on the skin or hair it can detoxify. This method is only to be done once every three weeks. That is to cover a flannel in the castor oil, lay it across your lower abdomen cover in cling film and put a hot water bottle on top and relax for 30 mins. This attacks the cyst from the outside.

 

It wasn't the easiest eight weeks and at times I did want to give up but overall I started to change my way of life to make sure what I was putting in was not going to add to my issues.  Vegetarian and vegan food isn't so scary once you get into the swing of it. After eight weeks the cyst had totally disbanded. I was over the moon, I felt better and less bloated and weight loss started to become easier.  I am sure I will suffer with a cyst again but now I know how to manage them, so it becomes much less scary if I do. I also learnt that listening to your body and instinct is the best way to learn how to make it better. All the recipes I learnt in that time I still make and vegetarian eating I know will fill me up and keep me healthy.