Uterine volume in adolescents

The objective of the present study was to determine the uterine volume of adolescents by ultrasonography, and to correlate it with pregnancy during adolescence and with the immaturity of the female genital tract for pregnancy and delivery. A transverse observational study was conducted on 828 patients who were 10 to 40 years old by transabdominal ultrasonography and were divided into two groups: group 1 consisted of 477 (57.6%) adolescents and group 2 consisted of 351 (42.3%) women 20 to 40 years old. Uterine volume increased with the presence of menarche, age and parity (p < 0.05). Nulliparous and primiparous adolescents younger than 18 years old had a smaller uterine volume, 41.3+/-17.9 and 51.6+/-19.7 cm(3), respectively, than nulliparous and primiparous women 20 to 40 years old (p < 0.001). However, secundiparous adolescents had a uterine volume of 62.6+/-20.6 cm(3), which was significantly similar to the uterine volume of women 20 to 40 years old (p = 0.22). The differences in uterine volume between adolescents younger than 18 years old or with less than two deliveries and women who were 20 to 40 years old may be due to immaturity of the female genital tract for pregnancy and delivery among younger women, with a consequent higher incidence of preterm, deliveries in this group. (C) 2004 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine Biology.