Ultrasounds
At Colorado Obstetrics & Women’s Health we are able to offer you obstetrical and gynecological ultrasounds here in our office. The ultrasounds are ordered by your provider, performed by a registered sonographer, and interpreted by your physician.
Obstetrical Ultrasounds
A fetal ultrasound provides you and your doctor with a first glimpse of your developing baby.
- It is a safe, painless and non-invasive test used to:
- Confirm a pregnancy and its location
- Determine how a pregnancy is progressing, the baby’s growth rate, age and sex
- Determine location and development of the placenta
- Identifiy possible fetal abnormalities
- Survey the fetus with a biophysical profile and fetal heart monitor
- Monitor cervical length for preterm labor
- Blood flow doppler studies
- Typically performed between:
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Dating Ultrasound – 6-9 weeks of pregnancy
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First Trimester Screening (optional) – 13 weeks of pregnancy
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Second Trimester Detailed Anatomic Screening – 18-20 weeks of pregnancy
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Third trimester evaluation for growth, anatomy, amniotic fluid level or cervical length, which is used to monitor for preterm labor
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Pelvic Ultrasound
If you are not pregnant but need an ultrasound because of pain, or because the doctor felt a cyst or other mass, we call that a pelvic ultrasound. Usually we want to scan you through the abdomen and also through the vagina. For most women a vaginal transducer is used.
Once we are finished scanning through the abdomen, we will send you to the bathroom to completely empty the bladder. Then we will scan you through the vagina for the complete examination. This is not painful or traumatic. The transducer is designed to be used in the vagina. However with teenagers or women who can’t have a vaginal exam, the abdominal exam will be completed. A full bladder will be required for that exam. Consequently the patient will need to drink fluid to have a full bladder prior to the exam.
Types of Ultrasounds
Obstetrical
- Standard Directs high-pitched sound waves toward the baby which bounces off tissues, organs and bones in the mother’s body, including those of the baby in the uterus. This creates back and white images on a monitor.
- Advanced or Targeted Used to further investigate a suspected abnormality identified by a standard ultrasound.
- Doppler Measures slight changes in the frequency of the ultrasound waves as they bounce off moving objects, such as blood cells.
Gynecological
- Transvaginal
- Abdominal
How to Prepare
- Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothing.
What to expect
- The examination usually takes less than 30 minutes.
- The patient is positioned on an examination table and clear gel is applied to the abdomen or in the vagina. This improves conduction of sound waves and eliminates air between the transducer, a small plastic device that sends out sound waves and records them as they bounce back.
