pwright414's comments

Let's Talk About Having a Bicornuate Uterus - Blog Entry

23 Oct 2008 07:15 AM

I learned about my bicornuate uterus when I was 8 weeks pregnant. Like many of the other posters, I had cramping and bleeding, so I went to my urgent care facility. The ultrasound showed that the baby was ok, but my uterus was abnormally shaped. As a veterinary technician, I was familiar with bicornuate uteri, because that's waht dogs and cats have! I was put on bedrest for a day, then restricted activity for the remainder of the week. At 9 1/2 weeks the bleeding stopped. Baby was still ok. I researched on the internet about uterine abnormalities, but even with lots of scary stories, there were many with happy endings.

At 34 weeks, I thought the baby dropped, and at my appointment, my OB felt around and said, "Nope. She's breech." They would continue checking the position of the baby to see if she would turn, but my OB said to plan on a C-section. From about 36 weeks on, the baby had definitely settled in one position, her head below the ribs on my right side, her butt down a little on the left. My husband and I could feel her head and butt perfectly. She was apparently comfy this way.

Thankfully my doctor knew that you should NEVER attempt an eversion (to turn the baby) with an abnormal uterus. (I personally think eversions are barbaric and risky in any situation.) She scheduled my C-section at 39 weeks; she didn't want me to go into labor at all. Breech babies make for scary sections in an emergency. My daughter was delivered easily. She turned 1 year old two weeks ago.

Since then, I have had an HSG (hysterosalpingogram) to determine the exact shape. They injected dye into the uterus and used a flouroscope (like a live x-ray) to take a look. It was pretty cool to see what it really looked like. Mine isn't split with a septum or even very heart-shaped. I thought it looked more like a curved sausage link, actually.

After the HSG, I was referred for an MRI. My husband is in the military and we live in Japan right now. All of my OB/GYN care was done at a military hospital, but for the MRI, I was sent to a Japanese hospital. It will be another week or so before my OB gets in touch with me after looking at the MRI CD from the Japanese hospital. She wanted to be thorough in her diagnostics. Sometimes women with uterine abnormalities can also have spinal or kidney abnormalities, and she wanted to rule out any other problems.

As for more pregnancies, my period was a few days late a couple months ago. I had a positive home test, but it was over a 3-day weekend, and so by the time I got to the hospital for a blood test, it came up negative. I had started bleeding a couple hours before I got the phone call. I don't know if that counts as a miscarriage. I guess technically it was a "chemical pregnancy." The embryo never implanted. My husband and I are trying, but we don't break out the thermometer or chart my cervical mucus (gross!). We just have a whole lot of fun from day 13 to 17!

Hang in there, ladies! It can be done! There are plenty of women here who are proof positive that size, I mean, SHAPE doesn't matter!