Abstract
Objective: To measure the outcome of age on ovarian and uterine morphology in primary infertile women with
polycystic ovaries.
Methods: The observational cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2009 to March 2010, and the
subjects were recruited from Ziauddin Hospital, Nazimabad, Karachi. The primary infertile subjects with polycystic
ovaries were subdivided into two age groups:20-30 years (group I), and 31-40 years (group II). Both groups had equal
number of subjects. The ovarian volume, follicles count and size, uterine area and endometrial thickness were
determined by transabdominal and transvaginal scans. Shapiro-Wilk\u27s test and Mann-Whitney test were applied,
with p\u3c0.05 being significant.
Results: There were 200 female subjects in the study who were divided into two equal age-based groups of
100(50%) each. The mean age of group I was 26.46±3.55 years and that of group II was 36.73±3.19. An increase in
uterine area from 89.99±5.83 to 119.0±23.33 (p\u3c0.03) and endometrial thickness from 0.48±0.11 to0.59±0.13
(p=0.01) was observed in group II. A decline in follicular count and size was also noticed in group II (p\u3c0.02,
p=0.001).Ovarian volume declined from 15.36±2.56 to 10.57±1.29 (p=0.001)in group II. A positive correlation of age
with uterine area (r=0.202; p\u3c0.003) and endometrial thickness (r=0153; p\u3c0.025) was noticed.
Conclusion: Ovarian morphology decreased in the elder infertile group of women with polycystic ovaries, but the
uterine morphology variables showed an increase in area with thickening of the endometrium in the elder group
