Hi people! New here (miscarriage mentioned)

July 12, 2004

Hi everyone! I just wanted to thank you for sharing all your

experience and knowledge with everyone in this forum. I found this

forum during my search for BU after two miscarriages (1st, 10wks no

symptoms, 2nd at 15wks with heavy bleeding, cramping etc.)

BTW i am greek, i live in Athens, Greece and i am sorry to say that

information or even awarenss on the suject of MA is minimal. My

story in a few words is this.

No dr had ever mentioned BU during regular check up ultrasounds

until I got pregnant at 30 yrs old; the dr i was seeing at that

time told me that i wouldn't be able to carry the baby because of a

problem with my uterus and my baby was going to die because there

would be no room for it to grow properly. My husband and i left the

dr's office devastated and i just didn't want to believe it. I went

to another dr who did an US and said that my uterus is " a little

heart-shaped " but there was no need for me to worry at all. I

miscarried at 10 wks with no symptoms. For some strange reason i

just didnt give it any more thought, i didn't do any tests for

uterus anomalies, i plainly forgot the whole " uterus thing " .

Since then i saw two more drs; noone mentioned that there was

something wrong with me. I got pregnant last November at 34 years

old, got light bleeding by end of December, i stayed in bed for

weeks, got up for a day on 2 Feb, got heavy bleeding, rushed to the

hospital, US OK, more bedrest, i finally miscarried my baby boy on

14 Feb at 15 weeks.

I cannot begin to describe how hard it was for me... I've done test

after test after test and my dr cocluded " bad luck " ! That really

got me going! I couldn't accept this explanation so i found another

dr who saw all the test results etc, did an US and said " bicornuate

uterus " . He suggested i should do a HSG and then he'll be able to

tell me what this really means in terms of me being able to carry a

healthy baby full term.

I probably raise the same questions others have already but...

how can it be that i had ultrasounds done by 8 different ob/gyns and

noone had seen there was a problem?

why don't drs include MA tests in their standard check-up?

does BU mean that having a healthy baby is a remote possibility?

I've read all the success stories and believe me i am so happy for

all of you! But i am so scared! Noone seems to know anything about

MA in Greece...

I have arranged a special 3-D ultrasound tomorrow; hopefully it will

give me some better idea of the situation and i am still looking for

a specialist dr. And of course i keep reading all your mails,

people, as source of knowldedge and comfort.

Bless you all!

July 13, 2004

Hi ,

Welcome to the group. I am very sorry for your losses. It seems

that a lack of knowledge about MAs is pretty common in every

country. But, luckily there are a few drs everywhere that are

educated about them. The hard part is finding the good dr.

Have any of your drs considered the possibility that you are SU

(septate uterus) and not BU? The reason that I ask is that normally

a BU has fairly normal chances for a successful pg, unless the 2

uterine cavities are not a normal size. Even in a full split BU, if

one side is the size of half a uterus, it is comparable in risk to

being pg with twins in a normal full-sized uterus.

SU, however, has a higher incidence of m/c. A BU is heart-shaped on

the inside and the outside. The dip at the top of the heart is made

of myometrium, the muscular tissue that makes up the rest of the

uterus. It is capable of supporting implantation of an embryo. The

myometrium is also nice and stretchy to grow with the baby. In an

SU, the outside of the uterus is shaped like a normal uterus...smooth

and round on the top, kind of like an upside down triangle. But the

inside is shaped like a heart. The part that dips down on the inside

is the septum and it is made of a fibrous tissue that is not well

supplied by blood and does not stretch like muscle, therefore often

an embryo that implants there will not survive because it is not

supplied by blood well enough or if the septum is large and won't

stretch, it pushes the baby out of the cervix when it grows large

enough to run out of room.

An HSG will only show the inside shape of your uterus. Be aware that

this cannot tell if you are BU or SU. IT can only tell you that you

have an anomalie. In order to tell BU from SU, the gold standard

test is to do a laparoscopy/hysteroscopy (lap/hys). The lap goes in

through a small incision in your bellybutton and the hys goes in

through your cervix. By using cameras on both of those instruments

they can tell if you are BU or SU. Some other women have also been

able to find out if they are BU or SU by having a 3DUS or MRI. But

the technician/dr must be VERY well trained to look at the fundus

(the top of the uterus) to find the tell-tale indentation to

determine if you are BU or SU. Also, some members have found out

that they had a little of both (we call it the combo platter - the

outside is a little BU, but also the dr found an SU on the inside

that needed to be resected).

It is very complex, isn't it? Did your dr conclude why you lost your

15 wk baby boy? Did your cervix open up? There are a lot of things

that can be done to watch you closely in a next pg if this is true.

They can stitch your cervix closed (cerclage) and do frequent

ultrasounds and order you on bedrest. These things have been

enormously helpful in delivering a healthy baby. We have a few

members now that are on bedrest and/or in the hospital until their

babies are born.

I'm sure you have many more questions. Please ask anything here. It

is a great group of knowledgeable, compassionate women. I'm so glad

you found us.

Sara

36, SU resected x2, dd 9 mos, #2 11w4d

Wisconsin, USA....hope to travel to Greece someday!

July 13, 2004