Ovarian volume, age, and menopausal status.

Objective: The purposes of this study were to verify whether ovarian volume differs according to chronological age and menopausal status in healthy women and to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of ovarian volume alone and ovarian volume associated with age in predicting menopausal status.

Design: The participants in this study were premenopausal (n = 121) and postmenopausal (n = 71) women between 40 and 55 years of age who were interviewed about social, demographic, and medical conditions. These women underwent transvaginal ultrasound to determine ovarian volume. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to evaluate the correlation between ovarian volume, age, and menopausal status. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were elaborated to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of ovarian volume and age related to menopausal status.

Results: The difference in ovarian volume was significant and uniform as age increased in both groups (P = 0.03). Premenopausal women presented larger ovaries than did postmenopausal women. Menopausal status and age were correlated with ovarian volume. Menopausal status seemed more important than age in determining ovarian volume decrease (R = 0.36) because age contributed little when added to a model already containing menopausal status. ROC curves indicated that ovarian volume and age were effective in determining menopausal status. The best cutoff points in terms of sensitivity and specificity were ovarian volume less than 4 cm and age 48 years or older. The areas under the ROC curves of ovarian volume and ovarian volume plus age were similar.

Conclusion: Ovarian volume differs according to age in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Menopausal status is more important than age in determining ovarian volume. The data suggest that ovarian volume and age are quite accurate in predicting menopausal status.