Trans vaginal ultra sound..?

Question

If Im pregnant(I go for a blood test on the 3rd and my period is 26 days late) will they do a trans vaginal u/s or a regular one?
What is the trans vaginal one like?
WHat all can you see or hear?
Just tell me everything,lol!

Answer 1

A transvaginal ultrasound can be done for obstetrical reasons (like such as if you think you are pregnant) or it can be done for gynecologic reasons (meaning that she has something wrong with her reproductive organs). With a transvaginal ultrasound they will put the special wand up inside your vagina and check for the uterus. At this time if you are pregnant they may be able to see the developing fetus.

As for doing a regular one (where they do the scan on top of the abdomen) if you are pregnant that will come later in the pregnancy.

For Obstetrical care they can see the baby's heart, spine, face, thigh bone (they do this part to determine the age of the baby) as well as their head such as the brain and also check the kidneys to make sure that all is normal. At about 14 weeks they can often tell what the gender of the baby is.

For Gynecologic care they would be checking the uterus to see how thick the uterine lining is as well as to see if there are any masses in there such as fibroids. They will also check the ovaries to see what their size and shape are to make sure they are normal and also if there is something abnormal going on.

The test depending for which one they are doing it for may take about 20 minutes. For the Obstetrical part when they are doing the full exam on the baby to check the organs that I mentioned it can take about an hour to do.

A good book to check out on the subject of pregnancy is Pregnancy for Dummies by Dr. Joanne Stone and Dr. Steven Edelman. There is also a video series to this book that has some amazing pics. I saw it when it first came out, it aired on Discovery Health.

As for what a transvaginal ultrasound feels like, if there is something really wrong the exam can be quite painful. Otherwise it is just a bit of discomfort from the pressure of the tech pressing down if it's kind of hard to the touch. But that doesn't last very long.