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Overview

A pelvic ultrasound is a procedure that allows your healthcare provider to look at what’s going on inside your pelvis. This is the space between your hip bones that contains the large triangle-shaped bone at the bottom of your spine (sacrum), your tailbone, bladder, sex organs, and rectum.

Your healthcare provider may request the test to diagnose unexplained pain, swelling, or infections in your pelvis A pelvic ultrasound is the best test to examine a growth in your pelvis. It helps your healthcare provider determine if the growth is a fluid-filled cyst, a solid tumor, or another kind of lump.

During the test, a trained medical technician will squirt a small amount of warm gel on your skin over your pelvic area. The technician will move a handheld device (called a wand) through the gel and across your pelvis. The technician will monitor the images on a nearby screen and record the images for the healthcare provider. The probe is connected to an ultrasound machine. As the device moves across your pelvis, it produces high-frequency sound waves. Those sound waves create real-time photos and video of the inside of your pelvis. The images look similar to an X-ray. However, ultrasound technology picks up things that aren’t seen by an X-ray.

Path to improved health

A pelvic ultrasound can be done one of three ways —

• Abdominally (the outer stomach)
• Vaginally (inside a woman’s vagina)
• Rectally (the area between the bottom of your large intestine and your anus)

The approach your healthcare provider recommends for your ultrasound depends on the reason for your test and whether you are a man or a woman. A pelvic ultrasound can be used to look at the bladder for both men and women. Your healthcare provider may recommend a pelvic ultrasound of your bladder if you are having difficulty going to the bathroom (urinating). It is used to guide a healthcare provider during a biopsy procedure (inserting a needle into the pelvis to take samples of fluid or tissue).

Transabdominal Ultrasound

A transabdominal ultrasound is commonly used to monitor the development of a baby in pregnant women between 18 and 20 weeks in their pregnancy. For this type of ultrasound, the technician will squirt a small amount of warm gel onto your stomach and move the probe or wand back and forth over your stomach. It will check the baby’s growth, such as height, the length of the baby’s arms and legs, head size, and more.

This type of ultrasound can check several factors during pregnancy, including:

• How far along the pregnancy is
• The baby’s position in the uterus
• The number of babies the mother is carrying
• The amount of amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby.
• The baby’s heart.

In some cases, it may be used as a screening method for certain conditions, such as Down syndrome. A transabdominal ultrasound also can be used to look for tumors in your uterus and other issues related to the female body, whether you are pregnant or not.

Transvaginal Ultrasound

A transvaginal ultrasound is a specially shaped probe that can fit inside a vagina. The probe will be inserted into your vagina.

This kind of ultrasound is used in early weeks of a pregnancy to determine how far along a mother is in the pregnancy and a due date. This method brings the probe closer to the uterus and provides a clearer view of a fetus during a mother’s first trimester.

Your healthcare provider may recommend a transvaginal ultrasound for other reasons including:

• Locating an intrauterine device used for birth control.
• Determining the cause of infertility (or to guide your healthcare provider during a fertility treatment or procedure).
• Looking for (ovarian) cysts or other growths in your pelvis.
• Determining the cause of abnormal vaginal bleeding or problems with your menstrual period.
• Diagnosing unexplained pelvic pain.
• Looking for an ectopic pregnancy (when a fertilized egg begins to develop outside of the uterus).

Transrectal Ultrasound

A transrectal ultrasound is commonly used on men. The end of the probe for this type of ultrasound is shaped to partially fit inside a rectum. A healthcare provider will recommend a transrectal ultrasound to examine problems with the prostate (the gland that makes semen) and the glands that secrete some of a man’s semen (seminal vesicles).

Depending upon the type of pelvic ultrasound you are having, preparing may be slightly different.

In all pelvic ultrasounds, you will be asked to put on a light hospital gown to make it easy for the technician to access your pelvis. You will lie on your back the entire time unless the technician needs you to turn to get a better picture. The procedure usually takes about 30 minutes. You should follow up with your healthcare provider to go over your results.  The only mild discomfort you might have is from the pressure of the probe on your belly (abdomen) or near where the probe was inserted. Your body is not exposed to radiation during a pelvic ultrasound.

Things to consider

There is a slight risk of infection with transvaginal and transrectal ultrasounds, since they are done inside your body. Contact your healthcare provider if you have abnormal discharge or fever after your ultrasound.