Ultrasonographic Assessment of Ovarian Volume: A Cross-sectional Study to Evaluate Ovarian Reserve and Its Impact on Reproductive Potential

Introduction: Ovarian Reserve (OR) serves as an important indicator of a female's reproductive potential and remaining reproductive lifespan. With the societal shift towards delayed marriages and increased career focus among women, there is a growing need to understand the impact of age on fertility and the role of assisted reproductive techniques.Aim: To evaluate the volume of both left and right ovaries in asymptomatic females using ultrasonographic measurement of various morphometric parameters.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the Department of Anatomy, in association with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Department of Radiodiagnosis, King George's Medical University, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, India, from September 2016 to June 2017. Total 100 non pregnant females aged 19-49 years were included in the study. Ultrasonography was used to measure the Longitudinal Length (LL), Transverse Diameter (TD), and Anteroposterior Diameter (APD) of both ovaries (right and left). The volume of each ovary was calculated using the formula: 0.523xLLxTDxAPD. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 24.0 was used to assess the maximum, minimum, and mean +/- Standard Deviation (SD) for all the morphometric parameters of the right and left ovaries. A paired t-test was used to compare these morphometric parameters, and a p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: The mean +/- SD age of the study participants was 34.06 +/- 9.35 years. The mean +/- SD of LL, TD, APD, and volume for the right ovary were 3.12 +/- 0.29 cm, 2.37 +/- 0.24 cm, 1.76 +/- 0.19 cm, and 6.78 +/- 1.08 cm(3), respectively. The mean +/- SD of LL, TD, APD, and volume for the left ovary were 3.08 +/- 0.45 cm, 2.32 +/- 0.25 cm, 1.76 +/- 0.18 cm, and 6.61 +/- 1.06 cm(3), respectively. A comparison between these morphometric parameters of the right and left ovaries did not reveal any statistically significant differences.Conclusion: The use of sonography is rapidly increasing nowadays in the field of gynaecology and reproductive medicine, and ovarian parameters are of great importance in diagnosing ovarian abnormalities in adolescents, PCOS, and ovarian cancer. In the field of reproductive medicine, ultrasound is helpful in serial follicular monitoring of females on ovulogens to assess their ovarian reserve.