In most of the cases treatment is not needed as the functional ovarian cyst does not cause symptoms, is not harmful and can go away by its own. In rare cases treatment is needed and the therapy focuses on helping the patient not to suffer of pelvic pain any more and to prevent reoccurrence of other functional cysts by preventing ovulation. In this case birth control pills are prescribed.

Most of the functional ovarian cysts disappear after 1 or 2 menstrual cycles and this is why the doctor will not prescribe any treatment in the beginning and will just take a period of observation too see if the ovarian cyst's status is changing or not. After a few months another pelvic exam will be performed by the doctor to see whether the cyst has disappeared of has continued to grow.

In case the functional ovarian cysts did not go away then treatment will be prescribed. In some cases the doctor will do more tests to see whether the symptoms are caused just by a functional ovarian cyst or another ovarian growth is present.

Treatment can be based on medication or surgical. At first the patient will be recommended to try birth control pills to see if there is noted any change in the ovarian cyst's status or not and if symptoms go away. In case no change is seen then the doctor will recommend a GnRH-A treatment, meaning that gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists are used in decreasing the brain's production of the hormone responsible with stimulating the ovary's egg production. Because this treatment has many side effects it will only be used for a few months.

If no results are seen even after this treatment, the doctor will recommend the surgical procedure. This means that with the help of the laparoscope a small incision will be done and the functional ovarian cyst will be removed. In case the ultrasound exam shows that the cyst looks unusual then the functional cyst will be removed by classical surgery, meaning that a larger incision will be made in order to remove the functional cyst.

If a functional cyst appears in a woman who has reached menopause, the situation changes a bit. The cyst will be tested to see if it is cancerous or not and many doctors suggest that the problem has to be resolved by removing the ovary. Until now this is the most adequate solution because doctors are not 100% sure that one ovarian cyst is non cancerous and they do not want to risk the health of the patient.

As long as a woman is ovulating the ovarian cysts can not be prevented. Birth control pills, pregnancy and breast feeding in the first 6 months after pregnancy can reduce the risk of developing an ovarian cyst later.

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