Bicoruate Uterus..........Only Positive outcomes please........

[heresfor2007]

Hi all,
Just wandering if there are any of you out there or if you know of any people who have a bicornuate uterus that now have healthy babies/children.
After 3 mc's over the last year and a half I have found out that I have a bicornuate uterus. As all of my mc's have been around the 6 weeks with no fhb, they are apparently unrelated to the shape of my uterus and are due to my bodies 'inbuilt quality contol system' as the consultant put it.
I saw the consultant today and although a nice guy, he basically said that it's just a fingers crossed situation and we need to just hope for the best. It is quite likely that I may get past the 1st trimester but then miscarry in the second due to lack of space for the baby. If this does happen though, it does hopefully give more hope for the next time as each pregnancy will stretch the uterus slightly more.
In some ways I wish I had never found out about it as some women have successful pregnancies and don't even realise they have a bicornuate uterus until the have a cs or get sterilised/hysterectomy. Now that I know about it I just don't see how I am going to relax at all when I am next pregnant as it seems even getting past the first hurdle of a heartbeat isn't going to reduce the risks of mc later on.
Sorry to waffle on... I'd just like a few success stories to give me a bit more hope .
thanks for listening, please can you give this a bump until I get a few responses.xxx

Yes, my mother who had three of us . She had 1 miscarriage.
So sorry you've had such a terrible year, but I hope there're others on MN who can give you some hope x

Thanks Happy. xxx

Thanks Sobernow.
It helps to hear these positive messages. x

mum i vaguely know had 2 boys, 2 yrs apart by c.s...all was well

best of luck and i hope this year is your year xxx

Me me me.

I have a bicornuate uterus and have 3 healthy children.

I didn't know about my uterus until I got pregnant in 1996. Everything was fine until I started to bleed heavily at 8/9 weeks.
I was told that they were pretty certain I had miscarried due to the amount of blood etc but upon scan they discovered that I had actually been having twins and lost one and thats when they also discovered the bicornuate uterus.
I was warned that I may still miscarry the other twin and that if I didn't miscarry then I would almost certainly go into prem labour.

I did continue to bleed up until about 25 weeks, but thankfully it was only light and did not harm the baby. I had loads of scans though just to check things were ok.

Dd was lying transverse from quite early on and didn't really have any room to move and so they decided from about 30 weeks that I would have a section, but they still stressed that I would probably go into prem labour. They were wrong, on the day I went in for my section at 38 weeks, I hadn't even had any braxton hicks.
Dd was born healthy weighing 6lb 8oz.

In 1999 I got pregnant again (after hardley any effort too, considering i had been told it can make conception harder).
They stressed the high risk of prem labour again and tbh I pretty much ignored them after they got it wrong before.
I did have problems with growth during that pregnancy and was scanned regularly again but eventually told that Dd2 was just going to be a small baby.
This time though the docs were right and I did go into prem labour at 34 weeks. Amazingly due to her small size, Dd2 had managed to turn from being breech to head down and I was told I could have a normal delivery but I failed to dilate at all, not one teeny tiny bit and the docs said this could have something to do with my uterus.
I ended up having another section, and Dd2 was born weighing 4lbs 14oz. She spent 2 weeks in scbu as she was slow to feed, but then came home perfectly healthy.

Finally in 2002 I got pregnant again and with regards to the shape of my uterus I had no problems what so ever, Ds was breech throughout but I had been told I had to have a 3rd section anyway as I'd already had 2.
He was also born healthy, weighing 5lb 14oz and no problems at all.

So yep it is perfectly possible to get pregnant, stay pregnant and have a healthy baby.

Good luck to you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Have they said much about the shape of your uterus ???

They told me that one half of mine was quite small. This was the side where the twin I lost had been and they told me basically that even if I had got a bit further , I would have definatly lost the twin anyway as there just wasn't room for it and that would have sent me in to very prem labour and I could have lost both babies.

me too...and i know there have been other threads about this topic too,
sadly my story isn't as positive as nutcrackers
dd was born at 33 weeks and spent two weeks in scbu(slow to feed)jaundice, dislocated hip due to her difficult breech delivery...dd has cerebral palsy diplegia.
1 in 3 babies born at this gestation will have some sort of disabilityand had this been my second baby then the care(or lack of}i would have complained about but being my first(and not having ever seen mumsnet-i thought it was all normal!!!)
ds was born at 38 weeks after a pretty scary pregnancy(didn't help that i was told no lifting...uhhm dd was 3 - 3.6 years old and could not stand up....}i was put on rest at 30 weeks after quite a bad bleed and the one time i lifted up dd(the first time i had lifted her for 6 weeks)my waters went not more than 10 mins later..i had a trial of labour and got to 7 cm dilated and stopped as things were not progressing and ds was getting distressed so had another emergency c sec
definetly no more for me but glad i took the chance for ds

good luck (and hope i haven't upset anyone)

I have a bicornuate uterus. Had no idea until I had a CS for ds last October because he was breech. He had been head down but turned around 34 weeks and got stuck fast with one foot at his ear and the other tucked underneath. He was unable to turn back head down because his head was stuck in one of the lobes. The consultant was drawing diagrams on the whiteboard in the theatre to explain it to me, but he only said that mine was heart shaped, he didn't go into any more detail about whether the sides were even sizes or how far the indented bit in the middle goes down. After I recovered a bit, I looked on the internet about bi-cornuate uteruses and apparently breech presentation is common.

How can your consultant say for sure that your miscarriages are not related? Do they know exactly how pronounced a shape it is? I know that some women have a long septum (the bit between the two horns of the uterus) and there is insufficient blood supply in that area to support an embryo if it implants there. I believe that they can do surgery to remedy this problem, but of course this might not be relevant in your case. Can you ask them to give you more detail?

I did a lot of reading on the internet and most of it is quite depressing and it actually scared me a bit thinking about going through another pregnancy knowing that I have a bi-cornuate uterus, but my ds is perfect and none the worse for having been a bit squished and upside down and I hope you get a similar outcome soon.

Best of luck

Forgot to say, DS was 7lbs 10oz and was delivered at 39+1 and I hadn't had any signs at all of early labour. In fact, I had no problems at all during my pregnancy other than the heartburn and exhaustion and inability to stop eating!!! But I don't think that I can blame my bi-cornuate uterus for any of these symptoms

Thanks for the messages. It's nice to hear some positive stories.
Nutcracker, I have had a hysteroscopy and the left side is largest and more healthy. May be slightly larger due to the last pg being in that side, not sure about the previous ones.
I know there is high risk of prem labour and breach babies, but if I get past 30 weeks then I know there is a high chance of survival.
Chatee - sorry to hear about your dd, I am sure that she is your special little princess and loved very much. I'm gald you were brave enough to have your ds and everything turned out fine. I guess it makes sense that the uterus gets slightly bigger each time hence your full term labour with ds (all be it a scary one).
Planning on ttc again this month - part of me is excited, but I am just so scared now. In my first pg I was soo excited about being pregnant and having a big belly to show off and now I just feel as though this thought of happiness has been taken away from me and replaced by worry . Thanks for your messages though as it shows that there is the chance of a happy ending .

Cheers mawbroon,
I think my uterus is quite defined with the separation being quite distinct and coming down most of the way. I think the lining certainly on the LHS is fairly healthy all round, the RHS was paler. I did question him about surgery and he said that it isn't very common these days due there being a higher success rate without surgery as the surgery can cause scar tissue and worst case scenario a hysterectomy due to bleeding during surgery. It wouldn't be something I'd consider anyway until all other avenues had been covered.
I agree with you about reading things on the internet. They usually just base things on statistics and rarely highlight the positive outcomes. If I have another early mc,I will certainly want a few more answers if they say the two aren't connected.

Hello all

I know this thread is quite old now, but just joined Mumsnet today, having found out on Friday I am pregnant.

I also found out when I was 21 that I have a bicoruate uterus. I found out after a string of differcult coils etc. I know a little about it, and that miscarriages are far more likely / common.

Does anyone have any tips? Should I be having much more regular and early scans? I am now about 5 weeks, and it seems this is the danger zone? Any comments / reassurance would be greatly appreciated!

I have a large uterine septum. My pregnancy was fine (although I was very stressed about the septum throughout). dd was born by elective c-section, as she was transverse.

Bicornunate uteri are hardly ever operated on, septate uteri more often (it is avascular tissue thus easier to cut through and leave it at that). However, this seems to be most commonly done in the USA. I consulted doctors in the UK, France, and Germany and they all advised me to have the operation only as a last resort if I have a history of complications, because, as someone else said, the operation itself carries risks.

Bicornuate uteri are not linked to an increased risk of early miscarriage, but sepate uteri are (it is thought if the embryo implants on the septum, there won't be any blood supply. If pregnant again, I would make sure to get an early scan (around 8/9 weeks) by an experienced sonographer to see where the embryo is implanted.

I spent my entire pregnancy in absolute panic about all of this (an in all honesty I'm dreading my next pregnancy because of this). However, I really want to stress that have since heard of many, many success stories of pregnancies with all kinds of different muellerian anonmalies.

Thank you Joppe.

You clealry know your stuff and it's very useful to hear from you. I will definately insist on an earlier scan. Like you, I am concerned, but don't wish to spend the next 8 months in a panic! Probably can't be helped though.

Thanks again, and best of luck if you have a 2nd pg.

Don't worry littlemissluck, I have a bicornuate uterus AND 3 DCs. I don't think there's necessarily an increased risk of m/c: it's pretty much the same as having a 'normal' uterus IME, but then I'm not a doctor!

Good luck with your pregnancy and welcome to MN. You'll find lots of useful advice on here.