The Misadventures of my Uterus

I had my hysteroscopy on February 8. This was my first time going under anesthesia and I was nervous going into the procedure, but everything went fine. That being said, the doctor did find something usual about my uterus; nothing that would prevent me from getting pregnant, but it is definitely something that needs to be taken care of before we can proceed with IVF. There are two possibilities as to what the issue could be. The first is called a Septate Uterus, where means there is a band of tissue running down the middle of the uterus. This can be fairly easily fixed with a procedure similar to the hysteroscopy, in which they will just remove the tissue. After I have healed, which will take about a month, we can proceed as planned with in-vitro.

The other possibility is called a Bicornuate Uterus, which means the uterus is heart shaped with two joined cavities (a typical uterus has a single cavity). This is not as cute as it sounds! There really is no fix for this; it just means that instead of implanting 2 embryos, they would only implant 1. Bicornuate Uteri could be more prone to preterm delivery, and they don’t want to risk twins being even more preterm when they are already prone to prematurity.  I asked the doctor if it turned out that I had a Bicornuate Uterus, would I be considered a high-risk pregnancy. He said that the term “high-risk” was relative; am I a higher risk than a 21 year old with a healthy uterus, yes;  a 42-year old woman, probably not.

Next week I will have an MRI done to determine which one of these I am dealing with and then we will go from there.  This was definitely an unexpected bump in the road, and I am not thrilled about having to wait longer to proceed, especially since I had already been psyching myself up to start the shots. However, if this was going to be an issue, it’s definitely good that we caught it before we started; both of these conditions, if not diagnosed before pregnancy, could lead to miscarriages. At least now, for whichever one I end up having, we can take precautions either way.

So the shots and everything have been put on hold until I am properly diagnosed and, if it turns out to be the septate uterus, treated.  We are hoping it is the septate uterus because, even though there will be an operation and a recovery period, it’s a simple procedure and once I am healed we can do IVF exactly how we were going to before.  

So, to quote one our favorite books (and soon to be movie), “The Hunger Games,” may the odds be ever in our favor!