Hailey Bieber shared a photo of herself on her Instagram Story on Monday, drawing attention to what she says is an apple-size ovarian cyst. “I don’t have endometriosis or PCOS but I have gotten an ovarian cyst a few times and it’s never fun,” she wrote, joking that the cyst is “not a baby.”
Bieber explained that the cyst is causing all sorts of uncomfortable symptoms. “It’s painful and achey and makes me feel nauseous and bloated and crampy and emotional,” she wrote.
An ovarian cyst is exactly what it sounds like: a fluid-filled sac in or on an ovary. Most people with ovaries will develop an ovarian cyst during their lives, per the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). These cysts usually form during ovulation (when the ovary releases an egg), and most of the time they’re small and generally harmless.
Though most ovarian cysts don’t cause major issues, some can cause immense pressure, bloating, swelling, and pain if they get big enough, per the NLM. Usually, ovarian cysts simply go away on their own, but in some cases surgery might be needed to treat it—say, if the ovarian cyst ruptures, as SELF previously reported. “We often see someone come to the ER at night with terrible pain that came on all of a sudden during intercourse from a ruptured ovarian cyst,” Alyssa Dweck, MD, FACOG, a New York–based gynecologist, previously told SELF. Symptoms of a ruptured ovarian cyst run the gamut but can include dull or sharp pain; a heavy feeling in the abdomen; fever; vomiting; pain during or after sex; weakness; referred shoulder pain; quick breathing; chilly, clammy skin; and abnormal vaginal bleeding.
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Again, ovarian cysts can happen to anyone with ovaries and are pretty common, but certain health conditions may cause them to develop more frequently in some people, per the US Office on Women’s Health (OASH). These include pregnancy, PCOS, and endometriosis—all of which Bieber ruled out in her Instagram Story—as well as severe pelvic infections.
This isn’t the first time Bieber talked openly about her health this year: In March, she was hospitalized with stroke-like symptoms, as SELF previously reported. At the time, she said on her Instagram Story: “They found I had suffered a very small blood clot to my brain, which caused a small lack of oxygen, but my body had passed it on its own and I recovered completely within a few hours.” The reason for the blood clot was originally unknown, but Bieber eventually shared it was caused by something called patent foramen ovale (PFO), for which she underwent surgery. In late April she shared that she was recovering from the procedure “really well, really fast.”
In her recent post about her cyst, Bieber offered a word of encouragement to her Instagram followers. “I’m sure a lot of you can overly relate and understand,” she wrote. “We got this.”
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Source: SELF
