[Prevalence of postmenopausal simple ovarian cyst diagnosed by ultrasound]

The high-resolution ultrasound has taken to discover small ovary cysts in postmenopausal asymptomatic women who in another situation would not been detected; these cysts frequently disappear spontaneously and rarely develop cancer; however, they are treated aggressively.

To know the prevalence, evolution and treatment of ovary simple cysts in the postmenopausal women in our department, since in our country there are not studies that had analyzed these data.

We made a retrospective and descriptive study in the Service of Biology of the Human Reproduction of the Hospital Juarez de Mexico, in a four-year period (2000-2003) that included 1,010 postmenopausal women. The statistical analysis was made using the SPSS software program with which we obtained descriptive measurements in localization, dispersion and by a graphic analysis.

We found a simple cysts prevalence of 8.2% (n = 83); the average of age at the diagnosis time was 50.76 years with a standard deviation of 5.55; the cysts diameter was between 0.614 to 12,883 cm with a mean and standard deviation of 2.542 and 1.91 cm respectively; in 27.71% of the cases (n = 23), the cysts disappear spontaneously in the follow up of 3 to 36 month (mean of 14.1). Surgery was indicated in 16.46% (n = 13), by increase in the size of the cyst in 9 patients (11.64%) and by changes in morphology from simple to complex in 4 (4.82%). Tumor like markers were made only to 37 patients (44.57%), which were in normal ranks; no carcinoma was found in this group.

The prevalence of ovary simple cysts was similar to the reported in literature. Risk of cancer of these cysts is extremely low when a suitable evaluation is made, a reason why the conservative treatment is suggested when these are simple cysts lesser than 5cm with Ca-125 levels within normal ranks. We recommend a follow up every 3-6 months by Doppler color ultrasound and tumor like markers for five years.