The ovary is an almond-shaped organ, on each side, roughly 4 cm in length.
It is attached to the back of the broad ligament by a short peritoneal ‘mesentery’, termed the mesovarium .
The ovary has two other attachments, the infundibulopelvic ligament (sometimes called the suspensory ligament of the ovary), in which pass the ovarian vessels, lymphatics, and autonomic nerves from the side wall of the pelvis,
and the ovarian ligament, which passes to the cornu of the uterus.
The ovary is usually described as lying in the ovarian fossa, on the side wall of the pelvis. It is the depression between the external iliac vessels anteriorly, and the internal iliac vessels together with the ureter posteriorly.
it contains the obturator nerve.
But, the ovary is very variable in its position and is frequently lies in the pouch of Douglas.
Blood supply The ovarian artery arises from the aorta just below the level of the renal artery.
The ovarian vein drains, on the right, into the inferior vena cava at the same level, while on the left it opens into the left renal vein.
Lymphatics pass to the para-aorta nodes at the level of the renal vessels.
This arrangement of blood vessels and lymphatics can be explained by the development of the ovary (and, of course, the testis) from the genital ridge at the vertebral level of L1.
The gonads then descend, dragging blood supply, lymphatic drainage, and autonomic nerve supply (T10) with them into the pelvis.
About the Author
