"missing" ovary, anyone? - Women's Health Message Board

fromos5 · 03-14-2005, 06:26 PM

Has anyone ever had docs unable to find an ovary through exam and then it can't be found on an ultrasound either?!

I have suspected endometriosis and have been on the pill for about 6 years. A couple of years ago during a routine pelvic exam a doc commented that she couldn't find my left ovary. The next year a new doc said she couldn't really feel my left one, but that my right one felt enlarged. This year yet another doc (it's a clinic... I get a new doc every year!) agreed and wanted an ultrasound (regular & transvaginal) to check on my right (supposedly enlarged) ovary.

Had the ultrasound today. My first pelvic imaging exam ever. Right ovary looks totally normal, not enlarged at all, no cysts, no masses. There is a massively gigantic fibroid completely blocking their view of my uterus (how nice) and THEY COULD NOT FIND MY LEFT OVARY! They tried and tried, but... nothing seemingly there.

Now I know that sometimes due to intestines and such an ovary can be "hidden" on a certain day, but to have no one feel it or see it for several years??? (I'm thinking... do I have autoimmune oophoritis? did it lose it's blood supply somehow and shrivel? did I EVER have a left ovary?) This feels like the time I saw a dentist for the first time in 10 years and she said, "Oh, so I see you've had your wisdom teeth out". And I hadn't. I just don't have any! At all! (Which is nice, in the case of wisdom teeth, LOL, but maybe not ovaries!)

Anyone???

Thanks,

liz411 · 03-26-2008, 06:30 PM

Thank God I'm not the only one. I just came from the Doc today and I too am missing my left ovary. I have three kids, the last one born just about 3 years ago and my doctors have always said I had "ovary problems" but this is the first doc that actually looked inside (internal ultrasound) and saw that the ovary is actually gone. Another weird thing is that I too was born with no wisdom teeth. Wonder if this is a disorder? I don't know if I was born without the left ovary, but I have been checked for "ovary problems" since the age of 11 and like I said this is the first anyone said that it was "gone". Have you learned anything new since your post? My doc said he was going to read up on it and tell me more about how the ovary would have "disappeared" at my next appointment in a month. Thanks for your post, I jumped on the internet as soon as I got home and started looking for answers and your post was one of the first things that I saw. Makes me feel I'm not alone

Let me know what you know and I will do the same.

Liz

Momof2sons · 03-27-2008, 01:39 PM

fromos5,

I get ovarian cysts, and on two seperate occations I had the Doctors tell me I didnt have a left ovary. I had had a hysterectomy 10 years ago but I KNEW they left my ovaries, I had the records. They had done two internal ultra sounds and they couldnt find my left ovary. Said that sometimes when there is a problem with one ovary(my right ovary had 4 cysts on it) the other will shrink up. Well 6 months later in another inturnal ultra sound, the cysts on my right ovary had shrunk down, and she went looking for my left ovary again, and low an behold there it was, with 2 CYSTS on it. So apparently they can play games with you sometimes, and go in hiding if there are other issues going on. Maybe the large fibroid had something to do with it not being there, or detectable, possible it did shrink up, and once the fibroid issue is taken care of it will come back? Just guessing of course.

Wish you the best, take care,
and God bless,
Annette

imahorsefan2 · 04-15-2008, 04:12 AM

Hi everyone, new here. My daughter aged 26 just had a laparoscopy yesterday and the doctor could not find her left ovary either. What's up with the missing left ovaries!! She has had two other surgeries for pain and endometriosis has not been found, but she gets adhesions which stick things together. The last surgery the doctor said her bowel had twisted and turned necrotic and was stuck to the back of her uterus and he removed it, so now I'm wondering if that was the ovary, but you think he'd know that, right???? This is a new doc and he said he was going to look into it, so who knows.

Thanks for listening,
Cathy

hessie28 · 04-15-2008, 11:19 PM

Funny, my left one was a disappearing/reappearing one. I had a large 10cm cyst and the tube removed in 1990. In 1995 I had another cyst and rubber bands of adhesions with the ovary removed. Ultrasounds over the years showed no ovary. In 2006 they insisted there was a left ovary and it was the same size as the right ovary. They all thought I was nuts when I told them it was taken out. They had the head of Radiology read the tape who insisted it was an Ovary. Now in Feb. 2008 had another ultrasound. Low and behold no left Ovary. They now see something on the uterus. They called it Adenymosis (sp?). Don't have any of the symptoms so I think they are wrong. So for two years there I thought I had a reappearing left ovary. I know they don't grow back. It was the left one too. But, I had my wisdom teeth. They had to come out though.