Ovarian cysts can present with symptoms ranging from mild cramping and discomfort to life-threatening hemorrhage. Treatment of your ovarian cyst will depend on the type of cyst it is and whether your doctor has any concern about cancer. If your doctor diagnoses you with a bleeding ovarian cyst, you must follow up closely with him because these cysts can rupture and cause internal bleeding. You can use vitamin K to treat bleeding in certain medical conditions, but you should not rely on this treatment for an acute or heavy bleed.
Ovarian Cysts
Ovarian cysts are collections of cells that contain fluid and can be benign or cancerous. The fluid inside these cysts can be serous, which is clear, or bloody, as in a hemorrhagic cyst. Benign cysts are either follicular or corpus luteum cysts. Follicular cysts occur when the follicle containing your egg fails to complete the ovulatory process and instead fills with fluid. Through the course of your next menstrual cycle, the cyst can continue to grow and may enlarge beyond 5 centimeters. Corpus luteum cysts occur after ovulation. When ovulation takes place, the remnant follicle is called the corpus luteum. This structure can become a cyst that fills with serous fluid or blood. If these cysts rupture, they can become bleeding ovarian cysts.
Hemorrhagic Ovarian Cysts
A corpus luteum cyst that fills with blood has the potential to rupture. If the cyst breaks, it becomes a hemorrhagic cyst. The amount of blood loss can vary. If the bleeding is relatively slow, your doctor may advise a period of close monitoring and treatment of any symptoms. Heavy bleeding from hemorrhagic cysts can become life threatening. This brisk bleeding fills the abdominal cavity with blood, causing irritation and pain. If the blood loss continues, your cardiovascular system can collapse and you can go into shock. This type of bleeding cysts often require emergency surgery and may be severe enough to require a blood transfusion.
Vitamin K
Vitamin K is active in the formation of clots. It "turns on" various clotting factors that your liver makes, which causes red blood cells to become sticky and attach to damaged tissue and to each other. Vitamin K occurs in two forms: Phytonadione, or K1, occurs in plants. Menaquinones, or K2, are vitamin K compounds that are produced by bacteria in your digestive system.
Vitamin K and Bleeding Ovarian Cysts
Vitamin K can treat bleeding in certain medical conditions. The time required for vitamin K to function is about 12 hours, and the full effect may not occur for 24 to 48 hours. This delay severely limits the use of vitamin K in patients who are unstable. Because vitamin K is activated in the liver, patients with normal livers and normal levels of vitamin K also do not benefit from this therapy.
Given the long time it takes for vitamin K to have an effect, treatment of a bleeding ovarian cyst with vitamin K is inappropriate unless your condition is stable, you have liver disease that prevents the activation of clotting factors or you have low levels of vitamin K.
References
- "Williams Gynecology"; J.O. Schorge; 2008
- "Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics"; Daniel H. Cooper et al.; 2007
- "Archives Francaises de Pediatrie"; Acute Anemia Induced by Rupture of a Luteal Cyst, Aggravated by the Ingestion of Antivitamin K; D Thiebaud et al.; 1989
