Woman with heart-shaped womb gives birth to twins

Heart-shaped uterus that nursed the twins

If anyone wishes to know what it’s like to give birth with a bicornuate uterus (heart-shaped uterus), they might find out by asking the unidentified 39-year-old woman with the condition that gave birth to twins in Russia.

She was born with the abnormality believed to strike one in 1,000 women. Normally the womb is pear-shaped.

Doctors warned for years that she would struggle to ever have children—but she defied their expectations to become pregnant with twins. The woman, from Moscow, required a Caesarean section to give birth to her twins, who were both born healthy, according to the Mailonline.

Before she gave birth, only a dozen cases of twins born to mothers with the unusual condition had ever been recorded in medical literature. Actress Lena Dunham suggested she also has a bicornuate uterus earlier this year, when she revealed she had a heart-shaped womb.

She named her son Evgeny, who was born weighing 7lbs, and daughter Varvara, born weighing slightly under 6lbs.

Local reports state the woman had been told for years that she had ‘no chance of children’ due to her womb abnormality.

But experts say having the unusual-shaped womb does not cause extra problems with conception but there is a slightly higher risk of miscarriage.

Women with with a bicornuate womb are often urged to have a C-section because it can affect the way their baby lies in pregnancy.

Moskovsky Komsomolets, a daily newspaper in Moscow read by nearly one million people each day, was the first to break the story.

They reported that “when doctors took the uterus out they could not believe their eyes, it had the perfect shape of a heart.”

The newspaper also revealed ‘the uterus was not removed, it was only photographed and put back” so the woman could have more children, if she wishes.

Doctors at Bauman Moscow Clinical Hospital number 29 said the woman revealed she did want to extend her family at some point.

The medics published the incredible picture on their official Instagram account, with the mothers’ permission.

More than 3,000 people have liked the post since it was uploaded.

The chief doctor on duty for the twins’ birth was Dr Olga Lukanovskaya. Other medics involved were Dr Konstantin Ryabtsev, Dr Elena Chebotaryova and anaesthetist Dr Alexei Kiselyov.

A bicornuate uterus—the medical name for a heart-shaped womb—is an abnormality believed to strike one in 1,000 women. The team at Kütahya Dumlupinar University published the tale in the journal Case Reports in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Writing in the publication at the time, they said: ‘To date, there are only 12 reported cases of twin pregnancy in bicornuate uterus.’

Figures suggest three per cent of women are born with an irregular uterus, of which a heart-shaped womb is one of the most common defects.

Turkish doctors were astounded when they came across a woman with a bicornuate uterus who gave birth to twins in 2013.

Dunham, creator and star of hit series ‘Girls’, had a hysterectomy to combat her endometriosis-related pain, she revealed earlier this year.

The actress, 31, revealed she had the procedure in the March issue of Vogue, in which she described her uterus as being heart-shaped.

Doctors discovered she had other medical issues that were causing her pain during the procedure.

She said: “My ovary has settled in on the muscles around the sacral nerves in my back that allow us to walk. Let’s please not even talk about my uterine lining. The only beautiful detail is that the organ—which is meant to be shaped like a light bulb—was shaped like a heart.”

The idea of a heart shaped uterus sounds romantic and many women having the abnormality have had successful and happy pregnancies. In reality however, a heart shaped uterus is an abnormality that can cause real issues when it comes to pregnancy.

James Nicopoullos, Consultant Gynaecologist at HCA UK’s The Lister Fertility Clinic, describes the condition as one of a number of congenital anomalies of the shape of the uterus (womb).

According to Nicopoullos, the abnormalities occur when the woman herself is an embryo in the womb, and “do not change shape during life.”

When a female foetus’ womb is being formed, a pair of ducts known as the “paramsonephric ducts” fuse together to form the uterus, tubes and cervix. Usually, it forms in the shape of a pear, but in women with a heart shaped uterus these ducts do not fuse correctly and “you can be left with a uterus that is completely heart shaped,” explained Nicopoullos.

The effects of this generally only emerge later in life, however, when a woman is trying to have a baby. “A heart shaped uterus is often asymptomatic, so is only picked up in routine investigation of other gynaecological problems such as miscarriage or infertility.”

The reason a heart-shaped uterus causes miscarriages is not totally understood however Nicopoullos explained the expert thinking is that “the change in shape may affect the ability of the uterus to allow a healthy embryo to implant correctly.”

Another concern surrounding a heart-shaped uterus includes the impact it may have on the growth of the baby. This could “increase the risk of a low birth weight, increase the risk of preterm labour, and increase the risk of needing a caesarean section,” Nicopoullos described.

While the concept of a heart shaped uterus sounds concerning where having a successful pregnancy is concerned, it’s not all doom and gloom. Surgical treatment is available, although Nicopoullos notes that this “tends to be limited to women with recurrent miscarriage.”

Surgery is also usually offered to those with a specific type of heat-shaped uterus known as ‘a uterine septum’, where a piece of tissue dividing the womb into two is removed to form one open cavity, as it should be.

But just because a heart shaped uterus can cause reduced fertility, it doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all —your pregnancy would just be deemed higher risk once you did conceive, and you’d receive extra monitoring for that reason.