Lena-Zakhara MohammedBBC Wales
BBC/PATraitors star and Welsh opera singer Helen Wyn says she is “grateful to have abnormal anatomy” as it ultimately led to her endometriosis diagnosis.
Appearance on podcast “This is not just a period!”The 25-year-old from Anglesey said doctors found she only had one “abnormally large kidney… two uteruses and two cervixes”.
A condition known as didelphys uterus occurs when the uterus fails to fuse during fetal development and affects 0.3% women.
This results in a double uterus, which may also have two cervixes and two vaginal canals.
Despite living with the condition her entire life, the recent discovery has left Ellen with “so many questions” such as: “Why [both the wombs] Bleed at the same time?
Star Traitors, episode 3who was eliminated in the second episode, previously told the BBC that the pain she experienced was comparable to that of having “barbed wire around her stomach.”
When she started getting her period at 14, she frequently missed school and did not exercise because of the discomfort.
During her 10-year wait for a diagnosis of endometriosis, Helen, originally from Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy, was regularly told that it was “just her period”, that she had a low pain threshold and that one day she would laughed at the therapist.
Helen began to suspect she had endometriosis after seeing other people talk about it on TikTok, but the full extent of her complex condition was revealed in a “horrifying” way.
After the second ultrasound, the doctor assumed that she knew she only had one kidney, but that was not the case.
She was referred for an internal ultrasound and recalled feeling extremely concerned when the nurse could not find her cervix and more staff were called in for a second opinion.
“So many people just looked at that screen inside me and just didn’t understand,” she said.
At first doctors denied that she had endometriosis – a condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows in other parts of the body – but told her her anatomy looked “completely different” and referred her for an urgent MRI.
“So many questions”
When doctors tried to understand her uterine didelphys, they wondered if she had two periods a month, which she did not.
“They asked me, 'Do you use tampons or pads?' and I said both.
“They asked me if I would put a tampon in, if I would still bleed, and I said no,” she recalls.
“So everything is fine, except for my two queens.”
Helen admitted she was still baffled by the discovery, leaving her with “so many questions.”
“What I don't understand is that if I have two uteruses… why do they bleed at the same time?
“Are they just in sync?
“I’m grateful I have abnormal anatomy because otherwise I wouldn’t have known I had stage 4 endometriosis.”
After years of being made to feel dramatic and “constantly gassed”, Helen said the diagnosis was what she “really needed”.
What is uterine didelphys?
A double uterus is a rare congenital condition that develops before birth when the two tubes that normally form a single uterus fail to fuse properly.
Instead, two separate uteruses are created – each with its own cervix – and, in some cases, a double vaginal canal.
People with a double uterus are in increased risk of miscarriage and premature birth, but it is possible to have a healthy pregnancy.
Some symptoms include:
- Pain during sex
- Painful cramps before and during menstruation
- Heavy bleeding during menstruation
- Leakage of blood when using a tampon (the tampon is only in one vaginal canal and not the other)
- Frequent miscarriages
- Premature birth
Now that Helen has received her diagnosis, she is awaiting a laparoscopy to surgically remove her endometriosis.
Nine months later, believing she was on a waiting list estimated to last six to eight months, she asked for an update and discovered she had “never been referred.”
She has now been added to the list, but she feels this means the clock has reset and she is trying to get the answers she needs.
