Meg Summers of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has had reproductive health issues since she was a teenager. But after giving birth to her daughter, the local DJ for Tuscaloosa's B101.7, WBEI-FM thought she could finally go ahead and have her uterus and ovaries removed.
Surprisingly, as she wrote in an essay for xoJane, she developed Ovarian Remnant Syndrome, a rare disorder in which ovarian tissue regenerates itself.
Medical wonder: Meg Summers, pictured, had her ovaries removed so she no longer suffered from ovarian cysts, but another one formed when one of her ovaries grew back
Lifelong struggles: Alabama DJ endured ovarian cysts and endometriosis since she was a teenager
Since Meg was 16, she has battled ovarian cysts and endometriosis, a disorder in which the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus also grows outside the uterus.
Her first cyst was larger than a grapefruit, and although it turned out to be benign, her doctor “assumed the worst” and performed a laparotomy, an invasive surgery that involves making a iraq email list large incision in the abdominal wall to remove it.
"It was just the beginning of a decade of pain and frustration," he says.
I'm afraid I'll have sideshow starfish ovaries again
Meg went on to need seven more laparoscopies, a surgery that uses a thin tube pushed through an incision to detect problems such as cysts and remove tissue. She also had a second laparotomy.
For five years, all of Meg's cysts developed on her right ovary. So, at the age of 21, she made the decision to have that ovary removed.
Initially relieved to leave the ideal behind, Meg was "devastated" when, two weeks after having her right ovary removed, she developed her first cyst on her left ovary.
