Woman Discovers She has Two Wombs

A Lucky Pregnancy With High Risks

"Most of these women end up having a [Caesarean] section," he said, explaining that Hasaj's condition likely happened during a developmental stage in the womb.

Normally, two long tube organs that become the fallopian tubes fuse together at the bottom to create a vagina, cervix and womb. But in Hasaj's case the fusion never occurred. She now has two halves of a full uterus; each of Hasaj's wombs is smaller than a normal womb.

"That increases the risk that the uterus might not be able to stretch to hold a full pregnancy," said Huang.

Indeed, Hasaj has been told she faces increased risks for premature birth, a breech baby and miscarriage.

"My cervix has to be measured every two weeks," said Hasaj, who noted her biggest worry for now will be whether her cervix starts to dilate early.

A Life-Changing Pregnancy

With a written letter from her doctor, Hasaj has left work during her pregnancy to reduce stress and stress hormones known to increase the risk of early labor.

"Where for most women the risk of miscarriage drops off after 12 weeks, there's always a risk for me," she said.

Hasaj considers herself lucky, but she and husband Tony aren't picking out names yet.

"We're trying not to get our hopes up too full," she said.

However, experts such as Dr. Richard J. Paulson, chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, have some encouraging words.

"Prior to the days of ultrasound most of these cases were discovered at the time of Caesarean," said Paulson, who has seen other cases of Hasaj's condition.

Paulson said reproductive malformations ranging from a complete failure of the two tubes to fuse as in Hasaj's case, to an oddly heart-shaped uterus are relatively common.

"It would be a rare case if she got pregnant in both uteri at the same time," he said.

Paulson also wasn't at all surprised to hear that Hasaj never guessed she had two vaginas or cervixes.

"I don't want you to imagine that she looks any different on the outside," he said. "In regular life, you're unaware of the anatomy beyond the first couple of centimeters."