Cerclage for short cervix NOT incompetent cervix - experiences?

[El91]

(Sorry for the long post!)
Bit of a backstory first:
Im 24 weeks pregnant with my 3rd baby. My first was born at 35 and my second at 32 weeks. During my second pregnancy I was monitored every 4 weeks up until 24 weeks to measure my cervix to make sure I wasn’t going into premature labour, but everything was fine at the 24 week mark and I wasn’t checked again then gave birth at 32 weeks.
Both my labours were extremely quick (less than 2 hours) and I dilated painlessly both times. When my contractions started I was pretty much fully dilated and ready to push.

In this pregnancy I have been on progesterone 400mg twice a day since 15 weeks and having scans of my cervix every 2 weeks. Everything had been fine but I went in on Wednesday at 23+4 for my last cervix check and my cervix had shortened to 1.8cm and was funnelling. Both my consultants were 100% against me getting a cerclage due to the gestation and the risk of them breaking my waters or infection etc. but I pushed for it and got it the next day at 23+5.

Im struggling to find any research or experiences of getting a cerclage with a short cervix, everything seems to be about incompetent cervixes which I don’t think I have as my cervix held on until 35 and 32 weeks in my last pregnancies. The only thing I seem to have relating to an incompetent cervix is the painless dilation.
I posted for advice on a facebook group about incompetent cervixes and was basically told to stop posting as I just have a short cervix and not an incompetent one and that I was stupid to get a cerclage as it won’t help with a short cervix 🫠 so now I’m panicking a bit.

Does anyone have any experience of getting a cerclage for a short cervix rather than an incompetent one? Did it work? I was just worried about going even earlier than 32 weeks this time and wanted something in place for peace of mind.

From what my consultant said, it matters very little. They will do a stitch for all kind of reasons, not just short or ‘incompetent’ cervixes. For me, my uterus becomes irritable at 16 weeks in each pregnancy and causes mechanical shortening over time. I lost my first baby at 19+3, but it certainly wasn’t typical cervical incompetence and my cervix (measured early in the next pregnancy) is average length. Labour was excessively painful and 19 hours long, 40 minutes of pushing. Painless dilation
is technically a classic symptom
of cervical incompetence (I hate this term!) as far as I’m aware.

The irritability in my uterus, which remains a complete mystery to the medical world, causes my body to believe it’s time to go into labour too early. In my next pregnancy, they monitored me and did a cerclage at 18+6 after irritability started and I began to shorten. It held him in until 33+1. My waters went at 32+6 and he was born via EMCS under general anaesthetic because they didn’t believe how fast I was progressing and they let the stitch embed. Had they been able to release it, he’d have flown out in three hours. Labour was incredibly painful, definitely not painless dilation.

i have everything crossed for you that the cerclage works and keeps your little one in as long as possible to thrive! It’s so stressful, but they have good success rates.