TTC with strange periods & odd anatomy

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and wanted to chat with people in a similar situation.
I've been TTC for 5 months which is not long at all but i have problem periods. This is gonna take some explaining so bear with me please.
I always had long periods so over the past 3 years I've been seeing different Dr's. They put me on the contraceptive pill to controll them but that made it worse as did implanon, i bled continually! They finally found out i have 2 reproductive systems, which means i have 2 vaginas, 2 cervix and 2 uterus. You could have knocked me over with a feather!!
The specialist said there was nothing to indicate i would have problems conceiving and removed the implanon. That was Aug last year and since then my periods have been a nightmare, they seem to have settled into a pattern but not a "normal" one.
My period lasts for 16 days, on the 16th day it starts again but only lasts 7 days, then it stops for between 7 - 11 days. Then it starts all over again! 16 days, 7days, stop.
I count my blessings i don't have a heavy period!

Does that make sense? How can i find out when or if I'm ovulating when my cycle is like this? My Dr said to wait 12 months before coming in again so i wanted to know if anyone else has any experience or advice?

Thanks heaps!
Jo

Hi Jo Jo
Wow I've never heard of that before, you poor thing for bleeding that many days of the month.
Have you tried opk's? You'd probably have to use quite a few of them as it's so hard to know when you may be ovulating with those cycles, which may become expensive but it's the only suggestion that I can come up with.
Maybe some of the other ladies might be of more help.
Hugs to you
xx

I have never heard of this either.....im surprised its never been picked up earlier...(like maybe before u were born, u/s........or am i on the wrong track and thats not something that could be picked up so early)??

Poor thing for AF being most of the month...that must suck. BUt i sure hope you can find some answers and you get a BFP soon enough. You deserve it for dealing with a condition like that.

GOODLUCK :D

Yeah it definitley sucks! lol!
Adkins, i haven't tried OPK's, I've only just found out what they are so I'll have to look into that.
Kimbaz , I'm amazed it took 27 years to pick up too. It was only on my 3rd ultrasound that they saw i had 2 uterus, then they had to do 2 exploritory surgeries to figure out exactly what my reproductive system looked like.

Thanks!

Are you able to have 1 of each part removed?? I have no idea what im talking about....but its an idea...?

What is your doctors plan of attack other then going back in 12 months time? I mean does ur dr think after 12 months everything will be fine??

You know the problem, maybe get a few other dr's opinions and try seek the help now rather then later. I know what its like to want kids....and once you get the BFP its worth all the waiting.

i was thinking similarly to kimbaz - is there a dominant set of reproductive organs which would allow the second set to be removed? i've heard of this before when i was at uni, but it's pretty uncommon.

only thing i can think of is to se if you can see an FS a bit sooner than normal - they might be able to find a way to monitor for ovulation - it's hard to know with those sort of cycles whether its just dodgy hormones or whether you're ovulating really regularly.

i know how horrible it can be to be bleeding all the time - i was the opposite to you - no sign of AF for months at a time, then i'd bleed for five or six weeks!

good luck with getting on top of it all and hope you get a BFP in the ver near future.

Hi Jo-Jo

Having two uteruses and sets of ovaries isn't as uncommon as it may first appear (many women go through life without realising they have this, especially if they don't have two pregnancies; the "spare" is hard to see at the 12w scan, let alone later when the pregnant uterus is huge and the non-pg one is still tiny - pre-scans, most people didn't have a chance to find out about this whilst they were alive). However, there is a higher risk of multiples.

It sounds like you have two regular cycles that are out of synch with each other - so basically, when one side is starting a period, the other is ovulating. This gives you two chances a month to get pregnant, but it also means that you can be (for example) 10 weeks pregnant with one child and 8 weeks with the other. It also means you can pick if you want one or two, and avoid the fertile time for one uterus whilst hitting the fertile time for the other. Personally, I would counsel against having one uterus removed now unless you want it - it's major surgery and could mess up your other uterus. Most FSs I know would say if you have regular cycles then you're ovulating, monitoring out of synch cycles would be difficult.

You mostly hear about these cases when the children have different birth dates - for example, one woman had a premature baby from one uterus at 6m pregnant, but the baby on the other side continued to term.

Don't worry that you can be 8m and 4m pregnant at the same time either, the hCG will stop both sides from ovulating.

However, the 16-day periods do sound bad, would you try a homeopath, accupuncturist or something like that to see what they could do?

Wow that is amazing. I was thinking along the lines of acupuncture and TCM too?

Wow this is amazing.. I have never heard of something like this.

What Ryn said does make a lot of sense. You could have two cycles that start and finish at different times. You may be at your most fertile when you are bleeding from one uterus? The only way to know this would be to use OPKs, but you may get a +ve OPK while you do have your period, so you will need to think about doing the deed then!!

Good luck and I hope you soon get your BFP.

Hi Jo-Jo, a friend of mine has a friend with the same anatomy. I think from memory she successfully got pregnant but she had an elective tube removal (I think) on one side to avoid multiples.. but not knowing the girl I don't know any details, sorry !! Just wanted to let you know there's other people out there in your situation!

I recommend taking your temp to find out when you are oing... I have all different length periods every month very rarely the same i temped for one month and fell pg with my angel baby.... The site all of us use is Fertility Friend you can do a free course through them that goes through the whole process with you...

Good luck and i hope you find my info helpful...

I once worked with a lady who had 2 working sets of reproductive systems.
She had 3 girls (2 years difference between them)... and carried them in different wombs each time... the only noticable difference to her was that her "bump" was either more to the left or more to the right.
Her children were older at the time, so I never saw her pregnant, but she loved telling her right/left bump stories.
Wishing you all the very best for your TTC journey.

Thanks for all the info! It's good to know there are other women who have had children with similar anatomy to mine.
The Dr said that because there is nothing medically wrong with either uterus there is no need to romove one, plus it would leave scaring on the uterus that could cause problems later. I've tried all manner of hormone treatments to get my periods under control but they all have zero effect and usually make it worse. Whilst is was on the pill & implanon i bled continually for 3 years!! I was at the point of giving up on having kids and asking for a hysterectomy (sp)
Ryn, i will look into homeopath or accupuncturist, nothing ventured nothing gained as they say. I think i will get another opinion from a different Dr too. I guess my current one thinks there is nothing wrong with me so nothing to fix and the usual try for 12 months and see aproach applies.

Thanks heaps for replying, i don't feel like such an oddity now!

Jo