🧩 Complex structure 🔢 Raising to power 🌀 Folding inward 👶 Organ shrinking 📉 Stagnant growth

involution

9.9

An organ returning to a smaller, normal size after pregnancy, for example the uterus after childbirth

noun
/ˌɪnvəˈluːʃən/

Specialized

: involución

After childbirth, the uterus undergoes involution to return to its original size.

Examples

Serial CT scans showed complete involution over the following eight years.

Academic text (2008)
Trauma may play a role in the development of these lesions, and they do not undergo spontaneous involution.

Academic text (2008)
The parents declined surgical intervention, so the patient was followed with serial CT scans, which showed total involution of the lesion.

Academic text (2008)
The doctor explained that involution can take several weeks following delivery before the uterus is fully normal.
During her postpartum check-up, the physician noted the involution of the uterus was occurring as expected.

Antonyms

expansion

241 3.3

An increase in size, amount, or range

Surface Forms

involution singular

involutions plural

Morphology

involution = involute (opaque) = in + volut + ion

The medical sense (organ returning to normal size) is specialized and uses the term in a technical biological context not obvious from the parts.

Etymology

Involution comes from the Latin parts in- 'in' and volvere 'to roll', with the idea of 'rolling back' to an earlier state. That's why in medicine involution means an organ returning to its normal size, as the body 'rolls back' after pregnancy.