Advice please on ovary volume!

[futuremummy95]

I'm a 22 year old student and although I've been with my partner for a few years now we are not ready to be trying and I have been on rigevidon for 6 years now - however I had an abdo/gynae USS in January which picked up my ovary volume to be 3.4ml and 2.6ml. Now research I've done shows that an average peak of ovarian volume is 7.7ml at 20 years of age to a subsequent decline to 2.8ml at the menopause - so obviously one of my ovaries is at a post-menopausal volume and the other is still quite small.

I saw my GP about this today and she totally disregarded me and made me feel extremely small. I've researched premature ovarian failure/early menopause and strangely enough the symptoms related to the conditions I have been suffering from now since about November. I told her all of this and she totally shrugged it all of and tried blaming it on me being in low moods/depressed and even gave me numbers for counselling! My partner was with me in the appt and apart from the normal stresses of university and now this situation I am DEFINITELY not depressed! She's simply told me that I should try coming off my pill and even when OH asked her about the ovarian volume being menopausal size she said it didn't matter!! I'm 22 - my ovaries as far as I'm concerned should not be that small!!

I just really don't know where to turn or what to do - I've read online about FSH tests, and antral follicle counts but I really don't know what to do. Please can someone just give some advice on where I should turn to next or if you think I should look into private testing! I just don't want to ignore this now and then find in a few years time I've lost all chance of trying to have my own children!

Thank you xo

The pill you're on stops ovulation (so google tells me). Which means your ovaries are put to sleep and your hormones are controlled by the pill. One way of looking at it is that this pill is essentially hrt keeping your body in a semi-menopausal state and hiding menopause symptoms at the same time.

Any doc will be dismissive of your concerns until ttc a year. Conception is honestly more art than science.

I have never heard of ovarian volume being a marker of ovarian reserve. And I have reduced ovarian reserve and have researched it endlessly.

I think you are worrying about something with no evidence behind it.

The NHS will not look into this for you. If you're that freaked out you can pay privately for a fertility check where they look at AMH and antral follicle count - you can't have FSH checked whilst you're on the pill. That will cost you £300-400. I expect you'll be wasting your money.

Just found this article, for example:

sciencenordic.com/birth-control-pills-halve-size-women%E2%80%99s-ovaries

There's a lot of heartache on this board, don't create your own when it might get not even be there...

I think your reading way to much into this. I've had 2 rounds of ivf so know all about stress, infertility and how worried you are.

If you can afford it, book a consultation with a consultant gynae privately and ask for an AMH blood test. It is the standard now in looking at ovarian reserve which is important. Not ovarian volume.

As others have said the pill stops ovulation and therefore follicles in your ovaries are not developing. This means women on the pill tend to have smaller ovaries as they aren’t full of follicles.

Have you been on the pill for long and did you have normal regular periods beforehand? I think if you are really worried about then you try coming off the pill for a while and use a non hormonal contraceptive. This will allow you to see if you have a normal cycle and reassure you that all is well. I honestly don’t think you need to worry though!