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“Nothing ma’am, nothing to worry about,” the technician answered, now returning to the neutral and calm demeanor he had when Cecile first entered the ultrasound room. Cecile wasn’t satisfied with his answer.
“Well, it sure looked as if something was wrong, by the way you were staring at the computer screen,” said Cecile.
“You see, wombs come in all shapes and forms,” the technician explained, “and you just seem to have an unusual shape. I can’t really disclose information about the ultrasound though, but your doctor will be coming in soon to discuss the results.” The technician left the room, clearly trying to avoid more questions. His vagueness left Cecile distressed.
The doctor was a sympathetic middle-aged woman, who came in repeating the mantra “it is nothing to worry about,” as she entered the room. She was trying to grasp the right words in order to explain Cecile’s rare condition:
“You’ve got an unicornuate womb: a malformation in which one side of the uterus fails to develop, making it half the size of a normal womb.” Cecile started at the doctor, still not knowing what that meant but already finding it hard to believe it really was “nothing to worry about”.
“A normal womb looks like an upside down triangle, as you can see, the fallopian tubes emerge from each side,” said the doctor, as she showed Cecile pictures from a handy book on reproductive health.
“Your uterus only has one fallopian tube, so you don’t really get the triangle shape, it is more like a deflated balloon,” the doctor explained, while she drew in a piece of paper what an unicornuate womb would look like, given that there was no handy books lying around with a picture of a uterus like Cecile’s.
Although the condition does not imply any further difficulties to conceive, it did mean that she would pose many risks during pregnancy: