‘Astounding’: Alabama woman with two uteruses is pregnant in both wombs

girlfreddy@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 265 points – ‘Astounding’: Alabama woman with two uteruses is pregnant in both wombs
theguardian.com

Kelsey Hatcher, a 32-year-old mom of three was born with a rare uterine anomaly called uterus didelphys, or two uteruses. However, she was not diagnosed with the condition until last spring, when she discovered she was pregnant – in each uterus.

Hatcher said her husband almost didn’t believe her.

“He said: ‘You’re lying,’ I said: ‘No, I’m not,” Hatcher told NBC News.

Uterus didelphys affects about 0.3% of women. The abnormality forms in the female embryo very early in development, around eight weeks gestation, according to fertility researchers.

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Uh, isn't that going to be a major complication for all parties involved? For pregnancy and delivery I mean.

Depends on how well formed the uteruses are. If they're both healthy, it should be fine. You would be amazed at the ways a person's body changes to accommodate pregnancies. Idk why this would be any more risky than, say, twins or triplets.

At the Science and Industry museum in Chicago they have/had step by step see-through models of a woman's guts before, during, and after pregnancy.

I took a date there and we had a great time. Arrived at that exhibit and we just stood there for a minute, witnessing how jumbled up the post pregnancy innards were.

I said, "I'll never do that to you."

She said, "Thank you."

Haha yeah, pregnancy can be amazing from an objective "wow, humans can really do that, huh?" perspective and also horrifying from a subjective "I'm sorry, you said my intestines are where??" perspective 🥲

As someone who decided to be pregnant for the first time right now, I definitely have a healthy heaping of both—at the same time even! It's a wild and sometimes darkly hilarious experience.

I'm thinking delivery has got to be way more complicated? The hormones that trigger childbirth might trigger both? But maybe with a special c section everything will be fine?

Planned induction could also be a way they could go. Induce one, then the other, or else c-section for one or both as mom prefers and doctors feel is safe. Maybe slightly more complicated, but not necessarily more complicated than normal birth. Birth can get pretty wild anyway, or it can go super smooth! Hoping for the best for this family, especially being in Alabama

For med school students who waste time here. A question.

These are not technically twins, right?

Not a med school student but fraternal twins come from 2 separate zygotes - 2 different eggs and 2 different sperm cells. If you disregard the whole 'two uteri' aspect they'd be twins, fraternal twins, dizygotic. It's all two eggs being fertilized at the same time, right?

What happens if the pregnancies were, say, 5 months apart? What kind of complications would there be?

A natural birth consists of a bunch of hormonal changes that initiate the process (similar to a medically induced abortion); I’d be super surprised if the younger fetus doesn’t abort when the older one is birthed on time.

I was going to ask if other animals were capable of multiple simultaneous pregnancies, but then I figured I should probably just google it.

Interestingly I found that it has indeed happened to humans, but it confirms your idea, because in the latest documented example, the children were born at the same time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfetation

All mammals that give birth in litters have one large and “lumpy/compartmentalized” uterus. Opossums (not mammals) for example have a forked reproductive tract which forks in the vaginal canal with two distinct “halves” leading to a different uterine compartment. I don’t think there’s any animal with two completely separate uteruses; please correct me if there is one though 😛

Opossums are mammals, just not placental mammals. Marsupials are in the class of mammals, and kangaroos have two separate uteruses

True, and let's also not leave out our fellow eggy mammals, the magnificent monotremes!

I mean this post is about one

That does not necessarily preclude the younger child's survival after delivering the older child via C-section though. Presumably if the aim was survival of both fetuses that would be the route taken?

I'd be more curious how that second pregnancy even happened though. AFAIK a natural conception isn't usually possible during pregnancy because no eggs are released. It might be possible via IVF or something, but who would you take that risk?

If they went that route, they’d probably have to block the hormonal pathway associated with labor induction anyway (because as the older fetus ages it will start that cascade toward the end of the pregnancy). Theoretically, I bet you could deliver the oldest with a c-section followed by another’s few months later, but you’re really putting the mother’s life at risk because the healing time between c-sections being 6 weeks at minimum. Continuing the second pregnancy for another 5 months could cause internal bleeding.

Pregnancy hormone HCG caused ovulation to stop its normal cycle. Essentially, their are either the same age or the first pregnancy already ended and needs to be removed, but due to complications the younger embryo probably won't make it either.

It's all two eggs being fertilized at the same time, right?

According to the article, they didn't need to be but likely were. Makes sense, thanks.

Basically, they are only twins if they are born on the same day, because the concept of fraternal twins is basically being born from the same woman on the same day. Identical twins with the split egg after insemination are the only real "twins" biologically (except clones, generally illegal). There's also roman twins, but those are pretty rare, because it involves a woman releasing two eggs but having intercourse with two different men in a roughly 48 hour time period, resulting in half brother fraternal twins.

Wouldn't it be uteri?

We're speaking English, so no, although it's commonly accepted. If you're speaking Latin, though...

Both Britannica and Merriam-webster list 'uteri' as the primary option.

Because dictionaries reflect how people use words, and people use the words that way.

Webster also lists "octopi" as a plural of octopus, which is completely wrong because the plural of pus is podes. But people say "octopi" anyway, so you'll find it in the dictionary.

My ex has a bifurcated uterus. Uteruses can be weird.

My body tries to grow extra uteruses, but can only make the inside bits, and attaches those bits wherever it wants to.

Gotta love endometriosis.

Does this mean she has two vaginas? Will she give birth out of seperate vaginas to each baby?

I have a sneaking suspicion that if she had two vaginas she might have realised somewhere before child number 4.

Seeing as she's had 3 kids already, it'd be silly to think she would have 2 vaginas when she was only recently diagnosed as having 2 uterus.