Meet a lady with two wombs. Pregnant in one, menstruated in the other
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A rare natural abnormality called uterus didelphys or double uterus distorted the physical body of a lady and gave her two vaginas, two cervixes, and two wombs.
It sounds like a fairy tale. But it is true, though strange.
So strange, Elizabeth Amoaa was simultaneously pregnant in one womb and had her menstrual periods in the other.
She had to put up with grinding stomach pain until she was 32 when her medical condition was unravelled through multiple surgeries.
Amoaa now lives in the United Kingdom. She has plucked up the courage to speak out and has written a book telling her trauma to prevent other women across the world from suffering in silence.
Struggle with an unusual medical condition
The BBC reports her the full story below:
“My name is Elizabeth Amoaa – the woman with two wombs, two cervixes and two vagina canals,” a 38-year-old Ghanaian tells BBC Pidgin in Accra.
Her tone is almost defiant as she explains how she has struggled with an unusual medical condition.
It was not until she was 32 that doctors figured out what was wrong with her.
Now based in the UK, Amoaa says she spent years with crippling stomach pain that often stopped her being able to work before she was diagnosed with uterus didelphys – sometimes called double uterus, a rare congenital abnormality.
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Multiple surgeries
She even became pregnant and gave birth prematurely to a daughter in 2010 without being diagnosed. She was still having periods while she was pregnant as the foetus was growing in her healthier right womb.
“I can be pregnant in my right womb and still have my menstrual periods through my left. This is why when I was pregnant with my daughter I was seeing blood,” she told the BBC.
After multiple surgeries, scans and medication, she finally understood what was happening with her body in 2015.
Rebound from backlash
Amoaa now wants the world to know about her plight, so other women do not have to suffer.
She faced a backlash when she first went public on a Ghanaian radio station talking about her condition, but is determined to educate people.
She has set up a charity called Speciallady Awareness and written a book, published last November, about her experience.
“My advice to women going through my kind of condition is: do not keep quiet; do not suffer in silence; seek early diagnosis and appropriate treatment – and remember, you are special.”