Transvaginal Ultrasound

Dr. Travis Stork: Actress Fran Drescher is with us today, to help us find better ways you can take control of your body and your health. The potentially life saving test for women Christian just asked about, is called a Transvaginal Ultrasound and Christian's currently backstage with Dr. Lisa in our procedure room and Lisa tell us why this test is so important for women? Dr. Lisa Masterson: It's a way that we can actually look at the uterus, look at the ovaries and make diagnostic decisions about what's going on with the woman if she has ovarian cyst that needs something done about them or they are benign or that they're potentially may be cancerous or that she has a thickened uterine lining that may need a D&C or intrauterine biopsy. So it gives us a lot more information than just the pelvic exam, that we do in the office. Dr. Travis Stork: And Fran you're passionate about this test yourself. Fran Drescher: Yes, we've actually started legislation here in the state of California to try and make the TV or the Transvaginal Ultrasound like a part of every woman's got annual gynecologic exam. And most women don't realize that when we get the Pap test, that that doesn't cover anything north of the cervix and when the doctor says, your Pap test came back normal they think okay well, then I'm normal. But there really hasn't been a lot of diagnostic attention, being paid to the uterus and the ovaries. And that's something that we think should be changed. Dr. Travis Stork: We wanted to let women everywhere know, what this test means, so Lisa take it away and talk to us a little bit about, what you're doing and why you're doing it? Dr. Lisa Masterson: And Fran is absolutely right. This gives us an extra pair of eyes and right now, you see when we get right into the vaginal canal, you can see the bladder. Anything that is black is fluid on the ultrasound and right underneath your bladder -- I'll show you a very full bladder, sorry Christian, she has been a good sport is the uterus and the uterus is this nice oval shape here, that you see. This bright white in here, is the lining of the uterus and her uterus looks really nice she has a little degenerating fibroid here, that just means that it's kind of almost tearing itself by just collapsing on itself and fibroid are benign. This is her left ovary and she actually has a cyst on her left ovary. Remember again that any black on the ultrasound is fluid and she has a cyst here, and it looks like it's about 1 centimeter, which isn't on the ultrasound it looks large. This is the ovary right here. It's this almond shape thing and again, on the ultrasound it looks really large. This is the ovarian tissue and this is the cyst and this cyst looks pretty good. Okay, the things that you worry about, with an abnormal cyst if it has septations meaning markings in the middle of the cyst. If it has excrescences or solid things floating around in there, if it has a ground glass appearance which might be an endometrium which is again, benign. But this looks like a common cyst that a woman gets every month during her cycle with the egg burst that when she ovulates and where are you in your cycle right now? Christian: About mid-way. Dr. Lisa Masterson: About mid-way, so we would expect to actually see a cyst on her ovary. So this can be completely normal. Alright! Dr. Travis Stork: So, Dr. Lisa who would be an ideal candidate for this test? Dr. Lisa Masterson: Somebody who has had a family history of ovarian or breast cancer, because remember they're connected. Someone who's had cyst before that may have been benign like dermoid cyst or other cyst that might come back. So that's a very important test. Somebody has had irregular bleeding or someone who has pelvic pain, because this is one way because that if you have a really large cyst that's another thing to worry about, because it can twist and that can be an emergency. All this took you know minutes here and this can be done in the office. It's just an eyes on the pelvic exam which is just the hands we can feel a lot on the pelvic exam. But we can't see and this makes it much more accurate.