I thought it might be useful to show what sorts of things I see when I get an ultrasound done at the RE’s office, and I found this great resource for ultrasound photos, linked above, since I do not have copies of my own ultrasounds. I’ve pulled a few photos for illustrative purposes here.
The first is what the uterus looks like in an ultrasound:
Here you can see the “three-layers” of the uterus. You can see tickmarks where the ultrasound tech is doing some measurements. Early in the cycle, the distance from top to bottom through these layers should be thin. By mid-cycle, this distance should be 7 mm or greater in thickness. This is how they measure the uterine lining. I’ve linked a thumbnail here because the full size was too large, in my opinion.
Next, we’ll look at an ovarian follicle on the ovary:
Here you can see the shape of the ovary, and a large dark mass. This is an ovarian follicle! Early in the cycle, these follicles are very small, and there are usually several of them. Leading up to ovulation, typically one follicle is selected to be the dominant one and it will grow much bigger than the others, before releasing an egg at ovulation. Again, you can see tickmarks where they are measuring the size. My largest follicle this last go round was 19 mm. But, they can be larger than that! This site talks about the typical size of ovarian follicles in natural and medicated cycles around ovulation. This ultrasound image of an ovarian follicle is of a normal one. If I had PCOS (which I don’t, but just for the sake of interest), my ovaries might look like this:
Here you can see the shape of the ovary, and several small follicles. These small follicles are often described as looking like a “string of pearls.” You can read more about PCOS here.
So, now you know what my doctors are looking at and for when I go in for ultrasounds!
That would have been a helpful site to see early in my treatment. My husband was always asking what they look like. It’s tough to describe. Great info Jess!
Hey glad you thought so! I’m hoping to be able to describe every aspect of my treatment as I go along, in hopes of helping others find this type of info who may be going through it as well, or to educate those who are close to me (or others of course), but don’t know exactly what I’m going through. So it’s always nice to hear when it is actually useful!
Hey, I wonder if my ovaries normally look like the PCOS picture. Hmmm, interesting. I always wondered what they meant by string of pearls.
Ashley, I don’t know? Quite possibly. Especially before you were medicated. But now you know what they meant!
I thought it was interesting anyway. Even if I don’t suffer from that.