bicournate/septate uterus

I found out today that my uterus is "heartshaped" or in doctors terms a bicournate uterus.

I was wondering for those who had/have the same thing did you also bleed and cramp at the beginning of the pregnancy did it lead to other complications. I have read that most births are c sections due to the baby being in the breech position.

Is it something that you can develop? I don't remember being told anything like this with DD.. but i did have cramping and spotting at 11 weeks..

Im also looking for some reassurance that i can proceed with a H&H pregnancy.

No idea Hun but I had bleeding throughout DD1s PG and my uterus is not heart shaped.
Hope someone has answers for you.


Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

A friend of mine had this and had no issues during pg at all, although falling pg was harder (she was older too). She did end up with a c/s because her baby was transverse, but they had been hopeful until 37 weeks that she would turn. Nothing was decided until that stage.

I know Dr google is bad, i know this so getting myself worked up last night was silly but alot of it made sense for my pregnancy with DD. Hopefully i can get in to see my GP today as i know she will atleast talk me through complications that could happen.

I have it. Took 6 months to fall pregnant with DD and 8 months with this baby. I should also mention that I only have 1 ovary.

DD was footling breech (CRASH c-section at 35+2w due to waters burst and feet poking out/cord prolapse) and DS is currently head down and making me wait for him (currently 36w). We are hoping for a VBAC.

With DD I had bleeding at 12w but that is all.

I have a fairly pronounced divide and I don't think it's made that much of a difference to the pregnancy? All my OBGY said is it's a very high chance of an early birth due to no room for bubs.

I would also like to mention that DD was in SCN for almost 2 weeks but had no breathing issues and is currently a very healthy toddler.

HTH

Hey LMS,

How was your labour and birth with DD? I can't recall..

My bestie has one. It wasn't discovered until her 12wk scan. She was told that it can cause difficulty conceiving (though it didn't for her and doesn't appear to have for you either), as the egg can ave trouble implanting up the top of the uterus, near the "horns".

Other possible complications she was warned about were placenta praevia (sp?) for the same reason - lower the egg implants, lower the placenta. Also breech baby and pre-term labour - as if baby is breech for a long time, as can happen with a bicornuate uterus, it can put undue pressure on the cervix, causing it to dilate prematurely.

So yes that can lead to c/s. Though my friend was allowed to go into spontaneous labour and then they monitored her for a while but it became apparent bubs was not moving so she had a c/s.

Logically, from what I've written above, spotting might be normal - if the placenta is lower, might lead to more spotting? But that's me guesstimating, not based on any sort of knowledge!

As for whether it can develop, hmm who knows? :dunno: The uterus certainly changes shape with pregnancy, but that is stretching and growing, is it really changing shape?? Hopefully a medical person will be able to comment on that... But I suspect you might have had it with DD too...

LMS, I would think that if your labour and delivery of DD were all good then you might not have anything to worry about so much this time :hug:

It's not something that develops its something you have to be born with.

A bicornuate uterus is formed during embryogenesis. I'm shocked they didn't pick it up during any scans while you were pregnant with K.

The only thing i was ever told was i think my uterus was larger than normal, they could have said an odd shape but going by how little i know they didnt go into great detail. A friend of mine who is a nurse said that my pregnancy with DD sounds very similar to one with a heart shaped uterus and explains why DD was in the breech position for a long time and moved at 32 weeks then couldnt turn from posterior... of all the ultrasounds i had at the hospital with various different midwives and doctors no one picked it up but my ultrasound yesterday done by a trainee sonographer mind you she picked up within minutes and called her supervisor... so i dunno.

DP asked the doctor straight out if this would impact my pregnancy and he said no, that the baby is tucked away but by the cramping and bleeding they cant rule out that a miscarriage wont happen.. and then he left the room. But couldnt the cramping and bleeding be because of my odd shaped uterus??

If my GP disagrees with him ill be making a formal complaint against the hospital.

I think complications come down to how serve the shape change is, obviously there are varying degrees.

The fact is wasn't picked up while pregnant with K I think would be a good sign that its probably nothing to worry about.

Follow it up with your GP. Also as your probably aware m/c can happen for a million different reasons and bleeding can also happen for no particular reason at all.

I have a septate uterus (so quite a long septum), where is it basically split my uterus in half, it was picked up in my first pregnancy at 7-8 weeks.

I too am surprised they didn't pick it up in your first pregnancy but it may not be as obvious as mine is. There are differences between the septate and the bicornutate uterus as well, so it depends exactly which one it is. With a Bicornuate uterus it is a heart shape, but all edges of the uterus have blood flow to them, it just stretches out during pregnancy and can actually going into a normal looking shape, but returns the the heart shape as it gets smaller. Where as with a septate uterus there septum (portion dividing the uterus into two) which has no blood flow to it, which is why it can be hard to conceive, because if the embryo burries into the septum, there is not blood supply to allow it to attach to grow and develop and results in MC.

With the bleeding, it may not necassary be the shape of your uterus, I bleed during both pregnancy, none of the bleeding was linked to the shape of my uterus with the exception of the MC of DD2's twin. I bleed from my cervix during my pregnancy with DD1 from 9-11.5 weeks, and with DD2 bleed thoughout the pregnancy, when ever I did any "exercise" ie walking to the post office and back :rolleyes:, but we found out that there was a large blood clot behind the placenta, and it was agrivated when ever I walked around. So not at all to do with the shape.

There may be links with abnormal uterus shapes and irritable uterus.

I've had two prems, DD1 I had polyhydromnious (too much amniotic fluid) no cause was found for why and an irritable uterus, but the advantage of too much fluid was that she didn't get stuck in a breech position, she came out posterior but head first.

DD2 too many complications to list, but she did get stuck in a breech position and ideally you want them to be head down as early as possible, but as I had Olyhydromnious (low amniotic fluid levels), my OB attempted to turn her at 28 weeks when my fluid levels were at their maximum, but she didn't want to stay head down, and my fluid levels kept dropping until I had none left at 35 weeks so she was stuck bum down, but she was a CS baby for not just being breech. My OB was supportive of a breech VB, so you can talk to you care provider to see if they are supportive of a breech delivery if it comes to that.

My OB had a good look at mine during my CS and determined that she wasn't able to remove the septum, it was too wide and long, and if she removed it, it would have resulted in much bigger complications should we try to have another child, so we just have to manage all of the complications and risks that come with my body.

Other things that they would monitor if it is a septate uterus is position of the placenta, if it is over the septum then they would monitor its growth and blood flow, I had a small placenta with DD2 as it was over the top of the septum. I also had regular dopplers to check blood flow and growth scans to ensure she wasn't growth restricted. This can also affect the blood results at the 12 weeks scan.

Hopefully as you went to term with DD1 you should be able to get there again, I have a few other friends who had have them and made it to full term with few complications even after have prem babies with their first bubs. And as your body has done it before there is no reason to say it won't again and stay away from Dr Google, it just causes too much stress and worry.

Oh and FWIW have a larger than "normal" uterus is a good thing, more room to move and turn.

Beema, thank you so much! :hug: That has been really helpful info. I saw my GP yesterday and she confirmed my uterus is heartshaped but hasnt split in half so its only septate (i hope im saying all that right!) she did say the reason why they didnt pick it up the first pregnancy was DD was in the right spot at the 6 week scan so they didnt take much notice but because this bubba was all the way up the top they wanted to know why and found out why lol. She said that i will go on to have a reasonabley normal pregnancy like i did with DD and i shouldnt have any complications.

She drew me a diagram and explained it very well. She did say if i do MC it will be natures calling and not because of my uterus. And the bleeding/cramping from what they can see is from implantation.

my mum had a uterus like beema's and had me and my sister by c/s but she didnt know for me was only 17 and they told her i wouldnt fit also i was breech when they turned me at 36 weeks i turned back mum said that was really painful more painful than the c/s she got a vbac ob for my sister but then they found out the issues (also had a double cervix) which led to another c/s not helpful for u but just that it wasnt picked up with her first preg
:hug:

i was told at one of many scans that i have a bicornate uterus - two sonographers agreed - went in to have a hysteroscopy (i'd had three losses by that point and they wanted to check severity) and my uterus isn't heart shaped internally - it merely appeared that way on the scan due to shadows.

it may be that you have a very mild case or not at all - don't let Dr Google screw with your head over this! if it is the case that you have a heart shaped uterus, focus on the fact that it didn't impact your pregnancy with DD - you have a healthy one year old! so chances are it will have minimal to no impact this time round too

I have one... The septum almost goes all the way down. Had two DD's both implanted on the left side. Both FT natural labors.


Love MN ;-)

Sounds like you are more relaxed after speaking to your GP which is good. Dr Google got his/her medical degree from a Cornflakes box so you shouldn't pay attention to them!

It is not unusual for a mild case not to appear on every scan - bizarrely I also had mine picked up by a trainee sonographer after having about 20 scans with very experienced ones!