What is a "pelvic ultrasound"?

What is a "pelvic ultrasound"?

Richard Paulson (Chief, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, USC) gives expert video advice on: How will my doctor test for female infertility?; How will my doctor test for male infertility? and more...

A pelvic ultrasound is actually a very non-invasive way of looking at the uterus. The problem with ultrasound is that you can't see the fallopian tubes except in very specific conditions. Under general circumstances, the fallopian tubes just blend into the background and you really just can not see them with an ultrasound. But you can see the uterus and you can see a number of things about the uterus that you really cannot see in any other way. For example, the uterus very commonly has little tumors, little bumps that are called fibroids and they can be quite problematic. They can grow into the wall of the uterus and they can disrupt implantation. They can cause pain and irregular bleeding and so on and you might not see that with any other way. Most fibroids are inconsequential. They're located some place where they just don't matter, but if they are in a critical spot, you want to know about it because you'd like to go and remove those before the patient tries to get pregnant. That's the primary thing we look for with ultrasound. The other thing that the ultrasound tells you is whether the uterus has a normal shape . Some women have a double horn uterus or one that is shaped like a "y" or like a 'v' as opposed to the usual kind of pear-shaped that is thought to be normal. There would be no other way for you to know that other than to go through an ultrasound test or perhaps to use an HSG.