Many women ask why they could have found a corpus luteum on an ultrasound scan, whether it is a pregnancy or not, and how they should be with such a diagnosis. Let's get it right.
What does the term mean?The corpus luteum is not a disease. This is what forms on the site of the bursting follicle from which the egg came out for fertilization (this process is called ovulation). While the egg is in sperm free access, the corpus luteum secretes a special hormone, progesterone, which prepares the entire body (in particular the uterus and mammary glands) for pregnancy. If it does not occur, the corpus luteum ceases to function, menstruation goes. It itself is replaced by a tissue similar to cicatricial, and takes on the name "whitish body." Hence the conclusion: the corpus luteum in the right ovary (it can be in the left) is a temporary endocrine organ.
If pregnancy has occurred
If the “efforts” of the corpus luteum are not in vain, it will remain in the ovary and will continue to produce progesterone, which is now needed to maintain pregnancy up to 10-16 weeks. Then the placenta will take on this function. That is, the option when there is a delay in menstruation and the corpus luteum is determined by ultrasound, most likely, indicates that you are pregnant. Exactly this can be recognized by the presence of the fetus detected by ultrasound, by the increase in the uterus.
There is a delay in menstruation, there is a corpus luteum on an ultrasound scan, a negative test - what does this mean?
If the doctor who performed the
ultrasound examination with a delayed menstruation said that he did not see the fetus but saw the corpus luteum, take a blood test from a vein for
chorionic gonadotropin. If its amount exceeds the norm, then you are pregnant, just the gestation period is quite small to see a
fetal egg on an ultrasound
. Moreover, we repeat, the corpus luteum on ultrasound is not a child, but a sign of pregnancy. A necessary organ that, prior to the formation of the placenta, is responsible for maintaining the pregnancy.
If the corpus luteum on the ultrasound is small, there is no menstruation, there is no fetus, and the test has become positive?
The first thing that is recommended in this case is to redo the ultrasound from another specialist after a second examination of the gynecologist. If the result is the same (there is no fetus and a small yellow body), then there may be such a complication of pregnancy as cystic drift.
It occurs 1 in 2 thousand pregnancies, the diagnosis means that, instead of forming a normal placenta, peculiar villi and vesicles form from its tissue. In this case, the fetus may not be. But the
cystic skid should be visible on an ultrasound scan. It is necessary to treat it, since this situation can end with heavy bleeding.
Yellow body sizes
Its normal size is 12-20 mm in diameter before pregnancy. Upon its onset, the corpus luteum increases to 30 mm. If there is a pregnancy, and the corpus luteum is 10 mm or less, this suggests that a woman needs to be given synthetic progesterone to maintain pregnancy (for example, the drug "Utrozhestan"). Sizes over 30 mm (this is called the corpus luteum cyst) do not indicate that there is an excess of this hormone. Therefore, if the pregnancy is desired, it makes sense to determine its level in the blood, and then proceed from the situation. Usually, the cyst does not affect the pregnancy and resolves itself. Extremely active sex should only be avoided so that the cyst does not burst.