Hello! i also had the Bartholin cyst for over five years, i suffered with it, a lot of pain because it got infected, the last time i had a painful one was last year June but i was two months pregnant so my Obgyn said they could only drain it until i give birth, so i just had the surgery done its eight days now and am home recovering its no fun but if you want it to go away you have to just do what you have to do good luck.

I had a surgery to remove my Bartholin gland on the 9th of March. Now it is the 15 of May and I am still recovering. It is still painful but no bleeding now. This surgery is a night mare. I am afraid it will have side effects. any sdvice Please!

I had a drainage/marsupilization (spelling..whoops) last April and it came back immediately. Last week, I felt a lump behind the Barholins on the Right side, my doctors said it felt infected, could be a Gartners duct and had me do an MRI. Turns out it is another infection in the Bartholins and it has "stranded" deeper into the vaginal wall. I have to now get that and the bartholins excised. Im very scared. Has anyone heard of this happening?

I am having my 3rd BC in two years. I had seen three DRs. First two were at the conditions that BC was so swollen and they have to be absecessed. This time, the cyst is in its 6th day today, it was painful but not "absecessable". I went to see gyn last Friday, he immediately suggested marsupialization after check-up without giving me more options and explanations (e.g. differences of Word Catheter and marsulialization). I went to see another gyn yesterday, whom did the absecess on my 2nd cyst, she gave me CEPHALEXIN 500mg,(10 day supply, 4 times a day.I had the same drug last time.) Today, I took a day off at home, did three sitz baths, the pain is very managable and swollen cyst seems to shrink down. I have time to read more and search on internet. From what I gathered and read, it seems to me even marsupializtion can still bring back the cyst - then, what's the use of the surgery?
I am also concerned the scars or effect of the surgery may hinder sexual desire or make sex difficult. Anyone who had good experience of marsupialization? Please share your experience. Thanks.

I hate this thing, it makes me feel like something is wrong with me. I don't even have sex because of it. And when I do have sex it hurts so much and try explaining this to a guy that has no clue about what it is. I think I will become nun or something. Draining for the rest of your life or surgery....this sucks.

Thanks
Can't sit down.

I had a bartholins cyst about three years ago and the surgeon removed the gland. Recovery was painful but quite quick and neither I nor my husband noticed any difference when we eventually had sex (after about three weeks).
My problem now is I have another cyst in the remaining gland and I am dreading going to the doc and doing this all over again

I have had trouble with a Batholin Cyst for over 6 years. This year I have had it drained two times and had the marsulplication done in February. Two weeks ago I had it removed because it came back. My doctor said I was infected to my hip and that he had to put in 10 layers of stitches. It is very painful still bleeding a little but it is getting better. He told me that it could take up to 8 weeks to fully recover. I feel like I can do more but then I just start hurting again... Anyone else still hurt for a while after surgery?

to tiredofpain
It does hurt for a while sorry, but my doctor prescribed Tramadol and that helped a lot!!!
Ask your doc if you can get that and I'm sure it will make you feel better
Good luck x

To Mandy369,
Thank you. I will ask him. I had the marsuplication and did not hurt this bad. I guess I did not realize how much more indepth the surgery was!
Thanks again!

I had my Bartholin abcess drained on Thursday and it came back on Sunday. I had it drained again today and I can still feel part of the cyst is there. They want me to have a marsup... The problem is these abcesses today were definetely infected and I have Multiple Sclerosis so infections can leave me dehabilatated. I am considering having the gland removed to avoid further infections. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

KM

Hi sweetkam,
I would definitely have it completely removed. I wish they would have done that to mine in the beginning. It is very painful. I am on my 29th day after surgery and it is still a little sore, but I do not have to worry with it coming back. I was also very infected from the cyst to my hip. I have at least 10 layers of stitches because of the amount of damaged tissue. My doctor told me that if I did not have the surgery it would most likely keep coming back and eventually I would be extremely sick from the infection and be hospitalized.

Good LUCK!!!
KM

I had a surgery to remove my 1st batholin cyst 2 years ago. It took me 1 1/2 months for recovery and to have intercourse without pain. However, I do notice that I have sex difficulty as I do not produce much lubricant during sex.. may be one of my gland has been removed and this affects my sex life... even till now.

I wonder whether anyone has the same experience as mine..

I have had trouble with this for over 12 years. It would come and go without having to be drained and without infection. On May 18, it appeared again and with a vengence. I could barely walk with the pain. My doctor was on vacation, but his associate saw me and drained it. The procedure was painful, but no pain afterwards. He used a local anesthesia. Put me on Cipro. 2 weeks later it was back again. It was drained again. This time he sprayed me with a really cold spray that then turned to burning before it went numb, then gave me the local. He took a culture this time and gave me new antibiotics. Culture came back with E-coli bacteria. It cleared up, but then came back on July 1 worse than ever. My doctor was back and scheduled me for surgery the next day. Had the iv in and was ready to go to surgery when it ruptured on its own. Worse pain ever! Had no pain after it ruptured. Surgery was cancelled until it healed. More antibiotics. Finally had the gland and duct removed on July 23. They gave me antibiotics in the IV so none by mouth after the surgery. They also did a biopsy since I am 54. On first two days after surgery, pain was as bad as the infected gland was, but manageable with pain medication and the pain gets less and less every day. It's been 4 days and I am back to work and haven't taken pain medication for 2 days. It is still tender. Moderate bleeding and swelling the first day and a little bleeding since then. Swelling is much better. No sex until I see the Dr in 4 weeks. Dr. called to check on me today and told me biopsy was normal. I am so relieved that I won't have to deal with this ever again, but a little concerned about sexual intercourse. I guess we will find out about that down the road.

Thank heavens 4 this site,i have not come across any other person to go through the nightmare of a bartholin cyst!!how nice 2 know im not alone!! after having my first cyst marsupilized(absolute doddle),my gynocologist decided 2 extract the whole gland.OMG,this surgery is so painful!!After expecting to be a day case i was kept in overnight to A) control the pain n B) moniter my blood loss (due to high loss during procedure),I am a mother of 3(all natural births) n i believe my pain threshold is very high but this pushed me to my limit!! obviously being asleep for the procedure was fine,but on waking up the pain was terrible!! i was on morphine n numerous other meds to control it!! i bled heavily n was sooooooooo swollen n black n blue i colud not believe it!!!the actual wound was bad enough but the worst part of all is the pubic pain,i felt like my pelvis had been ripped apart,i could hardly walk,i could not sit down n had 2 spend a week in bed before i could even hobble round the house!!!when i did manage 2 get up i couldnt drive 4 a further 2 weeks!! ridiculous when u hav 3 kids with busy social lifes lol,it is now 4 weeks after my op n i am bk 2 work,but not out of pain!!its quite hard to get about,bend down n i can still not sit down!!! i am also still swollen n the area around my vagina is numb although im hoping the feeling will eventually come back!!sex at the moment is also still out of the question,not just from the wound but from the pressure on my pelvis!!! it is so painful!!please if u are thinking of this op be prepared 4 your life being disrupted 4 a lenghty spell!!it is im sure gona be worth it in the end but in my opinion it is not the easy option!!!

OMG. I am so sorry for what you are going through and pray for your healing. My experience having the gland removed was no where near as bad. I had moderate bleeding the day of the surgery and very little for a week after. It has been a little over 3 weeks and I feel really good. I only have a little tenderness in the deep tissue. I have no numbness and the incision is completely healed. I guess I had a really great doctor who knew what he was doing.

Wow! Now I am really quite scared. So I had this a few months ago and I went to the gyno and he told me to take warm baths with epsom salt and had me take antibiotics. I did and after about 4 days of doing that it pretty much cleared up except for the one area where it all began that was like and abrasion and felt rough in comparison to the skin around it. But the pain was gone and so was the swelling. I have always wiped too much when going to the bathroom and I think that is how it started because I remember one day I wiped and I felt a little raw later. It was after that when I noticed a small lump and tried to drain it myself. But then it just got worse and infected and was really painful. But now after treating it I have started to use personal wipes when I wipe instead of toilet paper and one day I ran out of the wipes and I used toilet paper and when I wiped that abrasion where it still feels rough, I noticed a little pain. And now the damn thing is back! I am reading all of your posts and this seems to be the same thing! Im so scared! I am really good with pain too but I dont know about down there thats a different story! I have never had any problems down there. I think I will go take a bath now! If the gyno drains it and puts local anesthetic why does it hurt still? I hate these kind of things!!!!

I too have suffered with Bartholin cysts for 10 years. This past March it came back and never did completely go away... How many sitz baths can one person take??
I did a 10 day round of 2 strong antibiotics, the side effects of which left something to be desired.
as soon as the meds were done the cyst was back and larger than ever... I went back to the Dr and was scheduled the next morning for a marsupulization. In recovery the Ob-gyn explained that she was able to excise, now here is the part that I dont really remember, if she said the cyst or the gland... I understood the gland... Fentenol is quite the drug!
It has been 5 weeks since my surgery and I have now developed a hard lump in the lower labia... The way I was stitched up too leaves something to be desired... I was an add on at the end of the day and I think the doctor was a bit rushed... As for the sex post op... sometimes I don't have any issues and if I do, its nothing that a bit of personal lubricant and an extremely understanding man can't fix!

I'm 24 and discovered a cyst about a year ago. It was about the size of a golf ball and luckily I had no pain. After my obgyn diagnosed it as a bartholins cyst, I decided to try the natural approach to getting rid of it, and did the sitz bath thing (not too religiously) without any results.About a month ago I decided I'd had enough and just wanted it gone, so I went back to the doc and he scheduled me for surgery to remove the cyst. I hadn't read this forum yet, so I had no idea what I was in for. I thought I'd be in and out of hospital in a day, and back at work the next... but now 8 days later I'm still in bed and in lots of pain. I'm taking Arnica to help speed up the healing, and just can't wait to be back on my feet again. I think if I had known recovery was going to be this bad I probably would have just left the cyst.

Good luck to everyone out there... lets just pray these things don't come back!

Hi everyone,
I had my first cyst earlier this year. I made a appt to see my Dr. While i was waiting in the Dr.'s office, the cyst popped on its own. He gave me meds and squeezed the rest of the liquid out. I just got another one recently, I had it drained 2 days ago. By the way, both my cysts were on my vestibule and not on either labias. My dr. drained the cyst. He called it a "drainage". But he also said that he was going to make the opening a permanent draining place. I dont know how he did that bc I'm pretty sure he didnt put any stitches in. I checked and I dont see any. But the cyst feels like its still in there but its empty. The lump is still there too. I want it to go back to normal. So I guess I am confused about the lump still being there and how did he make a permanent drainage place without stitches. I'm about 80% sure that its coming back because it still looks exactly the same but empty and i can still feel the core of the cyst in there, like its just waiting to fill back up!! Help Please!! I'm ready to make another Dr.'s appt but I want to be more knowledgable about it. Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!