I'm sorry you were so sick. Doctor's love to say things to endo patients like "that's really rare so you don't have that". Just because it's currently viewed as rare does not mean you don't have it or had it. When endo advances it can cause a multitude of bizarre problems and the complexity of your problems also goes up making it more difficult to treat and diagnose various things happening your body. I worry that if it's not removed from your body you'll have more mysterious hospital visits in the future. In my personal experience, birth control has only made my cysts bigger. Endo feeds off of estrogen, so if that's in your birth control, I would switch to something without estrogen in it. No need to add fuel to the fire.

So I opted to do that, and an interventional radiologist used a CT-guided 5 French 15cm sheath needle and a syringe and drained 28mls of pus from my left ovarian abscess. The morning after, my white blood cell count finally went down to 12, which is still high but not dangerously high, and I was finally discharged after 5 nights.

I had my post-hospital-stay intravaginal ultrasound done at an imaging center a few weeks ago, and they only saw one ~3cm cyst in my left ovary that resembled an endometrioma. I’ve always been under the impression that the cyst was what they drained in the hospital, and to me, the ultrasound results confirmed it. But my gyno and the 2nd opinion gyno that I also saw after my hospital stay both said it’s very, very rare for endometrioma cysts to get infected, let alone *that* infected, and that what they drained in the hospital could have just been a random pocket of abscess? Neither of them could give me an answer on what happened to one of the 2 likely-endometriomas that I had in my left ovary prior to the drainage, though.

At least one of my 2 gynos is certain that I’ll need surgery to remove my endometriosis / endometrioma, especially after the infection that landed me in the hospital. She recommended me trying Apri (oral contraceptive) for a few months because she said she’s personally seen oral contraceptives shrink endometriomas and control / lessen endometriosis, she also assured me that it’s “not bad for your body” to just get on and off BC pills. I’m super skeptical about oral contraceptives, the last time I tried some (loestrin, I believe) was over 10 years ago, and everything I’ve read on here and the studies I’ve read done on oral BC straight up said there’s no evidence that BC controls, let alone shrinks, ovarian cysts (let alone endometriomas) at all. Not to mention, BCs come with a plethora of side effects.

I’m 29. I’ve never been pregnant. I do not currently want kids, but plan on having kids some day.

Because I’m trying everything I can to dodge BC pills and surgery, I’ve been researching alternative ways to control and perhaps even possibly shrink my endometrioma. Every study and article I’ve read mentions how taking 600MGs of NAC 3 times a day for 3 days a week has helped control and or shrink and even get rid of endometriomas and endometriosis. I started taking NAC in September, and am really, really hoping it works. I’m desperate. I also stopped drinking and stopped eating red meat, and am significantly cutting down my gluten, poultry, and added sugar intake.

Has anyone else with endometriomas or just simple ovarian cysts tried NAC? When do you take yours? Are you continuing to take NAC to this day, or did you just take them for 3 months, the same period used in the study? What are your results after at least 3 months of taking NAC?

Has anyone else had similar ovarian absceess / endometrioma or ovarian infection as me as well?

Thank you very much!

If I were you I d have surgery..., you could do more damage to your ovary to where they have to remove it completely that happened to me. I was 32, but already had two children thankfully. BC did not help me whatsoever and made me a complete mess emotionally during one of the worst times of my life. Also, you can still have children with one ovary from what I understand. Wish you the best.