Bicornuate (heart shaped) uterus.

[HeartShapedWomb]

Hello...
I've sadly just had a mc at 6 weeks. The mc itself was extremely upsetting as we were so happy to be pregnant.
However, during the scans, I was also diagnosed with a bicornuate uterus.
This, I think, has actually been much harder for me to deal with than the mc:
I'm so worried for the future. The doctors/sonographers dont seem particularly worried but my brain has gone into overdrive and I'm terrified that I'll never be able to have a baby.
I was just wondering if anybody else has any experience of this (and any positive stories would be very gratefully recieved).
I also expect people may have negative stories and I still appreciate these but please offer these sensitively.. I'm feeling very fragile already at the moment.
Thank you.

Hi there OP

I'm so sorry for your loss 

I just wanted to let you know that I have the same thing. A heart shaped womb. I conceived twins in 2014 and amazed the drs as I basically had one twin in each "arch" of the heart shape.
One twin did not develop and the second I managed to carry to 17 weeks before going into premature labour...it was a terribly upsetting time so I totally understand how you feel.
I was told the baby was probably lost because he had so little room to grow.

HOWEVER I really wanted to tell you all this because prior to this I carried my son and my daughter in 2006 and 2009. At this point my heart shaped womb had not even been noticed.

They just both happened to implant in the right place, further down. Both of them went full term, in fact both overdue!!

So despite everything please be assured that it is more than possible for you to carry a healthy baby. Please don't loose hope.

I'm thinking of you and sending you a hug 

Thank you so much for your response.
Im so sorry for your loss of your twins.
Im very very worried about late losses/early labour but I suppose that's unfortunately just a part of this that I have to try to get my head around.
It's very reassuring that you had two (overdue!!) babies so thank you very much for that bit of hope

You're welcome 

I know all the medical information will state there is a higher risk of preterm labour and miscarriage but I honestly don't think it's a big concern. It's just a statistic really, it's there but you shouldn't let it worry you too much.

A heart shaped womb is more common than you think and there are tons of women who have carried healthy full term babies in spite of it.

Take some time to look after yourself and be kind to yourself. You will recover from this and I'm certain you will go on to have a baby one day.

Stay strong. And again, so sorry for your loss 

Thank you so much, it's so reassuring when I hear of people who have a bicornuate who have had children when they didnt even know they had it.
There's just not a huge amount of info out there about it and a lot of the stories are so scary and sad so it's really nice to hear a positive story from somebody.
Thankyou for sharing with me.

My friend had this and she was not able to conceive easily and when she did, miscarried. However, the doctor did a simple operation. Not sure exactly what it was. But after that operation she got pregnant very easily, kept the babies etc. She now has a boy and girl, 18 months apart AND she is expecting TWINS!!! All conceived naturally. So she went two years of not being able to conceive or hold a pregnancy to now about to be having 4 kids! Check if you are able to get the operation. It changed her life for the better. Good luck.

I've got a friend with same issue. 2 healthy children but multiple miscarriages before DC1 inbetween and after DC2 then they gave up on Baby 3.

So it can happen but not that easily.

My friend has a healthy 1 year old and she has a heart shaped womb. She did suffer one MC before that though. She didn't know she had it until she was pregnant again and it wasn't diagnosed during her MC.

My mum had one. She had three MCs then two babies (me and my brother). We were both a bit early but fine. And strapping grown up people with kids of our own now! So I think she had a hard and stressful period but it ended brilliantly.

Thank you all. It's so miserable going from filled with excitement about expecting your first baby to suddenly having no baby and a huge bombshell like this which makes you worry (obsessively) about the future but its so nice hearing these positive stories.
Unfortunately, it looks like we're likely to have a fair few bumps in the road but hopefully our day will come.

My Mum had a bicornuate uterus and had surgery before going on to have me and my sister.
I also have one,either hereditary or due to medication she was advised to take while she was expecting me.
I've had 2 children,no problems though they both lay exactly the same way in my womb fitted into its rather odd shape! I had a miscarriage in my first pregnancy but that was nothing to do with my anatomy.
When I was pregnant with DD the consultant did wonder if I was at increased risk of giving birth prematurely,but actually both of mine were late.
Try not to worry about it OP

My sister has a heart shaped uterus, which is bigger on one side. She has 2 dds, 1 arrived 6 weeks early and the other was full term, she believes the early one grew in the smaller side and just ran out of space. Both dds are healthy teens now.

I'm sorry for your loss, OP.

I have one and successfully carried DD to full-term (and beyond...). I did have a miscarriage before that, but they think that wasn't related to the shape of my uterus.

There is an increased rate of miscarriage, but it's still very possible to get pregnant and to carry a baby healthily with a bicornate uterus. Good luck! x

I have another bicornuate success story for you. Two children here, just one miscarriage in between which may or not have been related. The only issue I had was baby number one not being able to find a way out resulting in emergency section (which then meant a planned section for DC2). Stay positive :)

Thank you again, so many reassuring stories... those of you with bicornuate uteruses (uteri?), did you know beforehand and were you classed as high risk during your pregnancies and did they therefore monitor you more often? I plan to ask to move into the hospital if I manage to get pregnant again, for all the monitoring!

Hi, sorry for your loss.
I have a bicornuate uterus, I’ve had two miscarriages which may or may not be to do with the womb shape, I suppose miscarriages rates are high anyway.

I have two children, with my first I knew I had a bicornuate uterus but was spectacularly let down by the hospital and wasn’t put as high risk, ignored when I was in labour and he was born at 24+6.

However with my second I was offered progesterone pessaries, and growth scans at 16,18,22,24,26,28,32,36 weeks. Baby got IUGR and was delivered at 31 weeks. Both children are beautiful and thriving now.
I’m not saying those things to scare you.

When I trailed the internet I found the opposite to you, I found thousands of comments of people that said their baby was fine and full term and it wasn’t a concern at all. From what I gather how severe the septum is makes a big difference. My point is it can go either way, you could have a full term bouncing baby, you might have a bumpier road. My advice would be to make sure you’ve got a good consultant that knows your worries, get a good care plan in place where you know you’re being monitored closely with lots of scans. And then try not to worry as much as possible. It’s easier said than done but you’ve got a good chance of everything going well and you don’t want to ruin your pregnancy before it’s even started.
Best of luck OP.

Thank you Mingo, I am worried about that... I think if I am lucky enough to get pregnant again, I'll spend the entire pregnancy anxious, worrying and waiting for something bad to happen so I really need to figure out how to relax about it a bit. I think a good consultant and plenty of monitoring would help settle my nerves a bit so I'll definitely be pushing for that in the future.
I also didnt know aboit progesterone pessaries, I'm assuming these aim to prevent early labour? so they're good to know about too.
I'm clutching to the fact that the doctors and sonographers seem quite blazé about it at the moment and hoping its not that big of a worry (maybe a minor heart shape, hopefully) but its also good to know there are operations you can get too if it does turn out to be as bad as I'm imagining.
Thank you all so much for sharing, I really do appreciate all your input.

My friend only found out when she was having DC2. But it explained so much about her history.

I've got a bicornuate uterus. One side is bigger than the other and that is the better side for growing babies so I was told. I was told when I was pregnant for the 7th and final time by a sonographer that I should have had IUI (?) where they inject the embryo into the better side. Sorry for not being adept with fetal lingo but hopefully I'm making myself clear! Anyway that was not much comfort after 4 miscarriages (all fairly late on) but I do have 3 DC. They were all breech or transverse.

I know how horrible it is for you but don't give up. Hopefully your uterus isn't as severe as mine but maybe speak to your GP about the IUI thing?

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Much the same as PPs, I had my son (after 1 m/c) and only when he was born was I diagnosed but only as a passing comment from the midwife.

I went on to have multiple m/c and was eventually referred to a recurrent m/c clinic where I had an operation to remove it. Their take on it was that there isn't widespread proof that these cause problems but a high proportion of women referred to the clinic have a septum - they were therefore starting to concentrate research into it and operating more frequently to remove them.

This was 3 years ago though so things may have moved on.

I agree that you should push hard to see a specialist to determine the extent of yours and see if you can have treatment. I was at St Mary's in London so if you could get an appointment there they may be more switched on?

Good luck 

Thank you, unfortunately I'm not really near London but I am in the process of trying to get a gynae referral so that I can hopefully get some investigations to check the extent of the abnormality.
Life just isnt fair sometimes (I dont mean that flippantly, I know many people have worse to deal with but it just feels overwhelming at the moment).