Illustrated Encyclopedia of Human Anatomic Variation: Opus IV: Organ Systems: Female Genital System

Ovaries

Ronald A. Bergman, PhD
Adel K. Afifi, MD, MS
Ryosuke Miyauchi, MD
Peer Review Status: Internally Peer Reviewed

Abnormalities in the sex organs of the female are, for the most part, due to developmental deviations. Anomalies of the reproductive tract are more frequent in women than men (1.5-2.0/1).

Incomplete or modification of its descent from the abdomen affect the final position of the ovary. It may retain its original suprapelvic position and lie above or upon the psoas major muscle. If the female gubernaculum (ovarian ligament) fails to adhere to the uterus the ovary may follow the round ligament and pass partly or entirely through the inguinal canal into the labium majus.

The adult ovary may present marked deviations from its typical form, sometimes being unusually long, spheroidal, flattened, triangular, crescentric, or otherwise irregular.

Supernumerary ovaries, varying in size, are not infrequent, occurring in 2-5% of women. In one study of 500 autopsies (Testut), supernumerary ovaries were found 23 times (or 4.6%).

Their usual location is variable in parous women, because they are displaced in the first prequency and probably never return to their original location. Also variably mobile, they may change position according to intestinal activity. In nulliparous women, in the upright position, their long axis is verticle; it has lateral and mesial surfaces, tubal and uterine extremities and mesovarian and free borders. They occupy the ovarian fossae on the lateral pelvic wall.

Isolation of ovarian anlage result in normal follicle-bearing ovarian tissue.

The ovaries may themselves may be the site of displaced adrenal or thyroid tissue.

Absence of one or both ovaries is extremely rare.

An ovary may become involved in inguinal hernia; the displacement of the ovaries into the rectouterine pouch (of Douglas) has also been reported.

References

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Blot, -. (1856) Absence compléte de la trompe avec un ovaire rudimentaire. Bulletins et Mem. de la Société Anatomique de Paris XXXI(7):284-285.

Blot, M. (1856) Atrophie ou plutôt état rudimentaired'un des ovaries, avec absence de la trompe du même côle chez une femme d'une quarantaine d'années. Nouvelle description des ligaments ronds. Soc. Biol. Comptes Rendus des Séances et Mémoires 8:176-179.

Boullard, -. (1854) Deux ovaries volumineaux. Bulletins et Mem. de la Société Anatomique de Paris XXIX(2):55.

Bouvert, -. (1875) Ovarite double. Bulletins et Mem. de la Société Anatomique de Paris L(7):538-540.

Brancha, A. (1901) Note sur l'ovarie ectopique. Assoc. Anatomistes Comptes Rendus 3:253-254.

Burgie, E.S. (1958) Absence of left ovary and a portion of left fallopian tube in a 19-year-old student. Q. Bull. Northwestern University Medical School 32:4-5.

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Exchaquet, -. (1875) Nephrite interstitelle; leurésie; ericardite aiguë; abosence du rein; de la trompe, et de l'ovarie gauches. Bulletins et Mem. de la Société Anatomique de Paris L(1):18-20.

Latarjet, A. (1948) Testut's Traité d'Anatomie Humaine, 9th Ed. G. Doin & Cie., Paris.

Masson, J.C. and S.C. Mueller. (1933) Ovarian tumors of thyroid tissue. Surg. Gynecol. Obstet. 56:931-938.

Pears, C. (1805) The case of a full-grown women in whom the ovaria were deficient. Proc. Roy. Soc. 1:194-195.

Radwin, L.S., Michelson, J.P. and J. Shore. (1949) Primary ovarian agenesis. J. Pediatr. 34:143-154.

Randerath, E. (1925) über einen Fall von angeborenem Mangel beider Eierstöcke. Arch. Pathol. Anat. Pathol. Klin. Med. 254:798-810.

Rowley, W.N. (1948) Uterine anomaly: Duplication of uterus, three tubes and three ovaries. Ann. Surg. 127:676-680.

Schaefer, E.A., Symington, J. and T.H. Bryce, Eds. (1915) Quain's Anatomy, 11th ed. Longmans, Green, & and Co. London.

Wilkins, L. and W. Fleishmann. (1944) Ovarian agenesis. Pathology, associated clinical symptoms and the bearing on the theories of sex differentation. J. Clin. Endocrinol. 4:351-375.

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