Brittany Jacobs of Jacksonville, North Carolina, was born with not one, but two vaginas.
It wasn’t until Jacobs, 26, gave birth to her son she was diagnosed with the rare condition, uterus didelphys.
“I noticed that there were two holes or two vaginas fairly young but I always believed it was my hymen, and as I got older, I thought it was just really tough and maybe would break one day,” she shared.
The mom of two started to realize something was off when she gave birth to her first son, Zack, on October 14, 2019.
Jacobs wanted a natural birth but had trouble due to an undiagnosed dividing wall in her vagina known as a “septum.”
The septum separates what would be one vagina into two, per Daily Mail. This made sex very painful for her and she was of course worried. But when Jacobs went to the doctors, they were unable to help.
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“When I brought it up to my doctors they told me I just needed to relax before having intercourse,” she said. “But of course, that couldn’t have been further from what was wrong.”
It was the septum that made the birth so incredibly painful.
“They were trying to deliver my first-born son when they noticed my septum,” she shared. “I was trying to have a natural birth and so they began cutting without medication.”
“I do not remember much but I do remember it was so painful – I was kicking and screaming and begging myself to pass out,” she recalled. “They eventually gave me an epidural and then cut it. At that point, it was painless.”
Jacobs shared that most girls don’t realize they have a septum until they hit puberty.
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The mom went on to reveal that common symptoms are “heavy bleeding, intense menstrual cramping, repeated miscarriages or preterm labor, but the easiest one to spot would be bleeding through a tampon within five to 10 minutes.”
The mom says that she is sharing her story to spread awareness about uterine didelphys and so women can empower as well as take care of their bodies.
“I think doctors didn’t notice this because the medical industry is so rushed and not as informed as we may tell ourselves,” she tells us. “I never felt educated enough on my own body to feel like I could advocate for myself.”
“As far as long-term issues go, I have had to rely on my support group,” she told the Daily Mail.
“We still try to rely on verified information – women discuss their research articles, conversations with doctors, ultrasound results and much more,” she adds. “It is frustrating the amount of doctors and midwives who say they never learned about uterus abnormalities, so sometimes you have to rely on word of mouth from people that also suffer with uterine didelphys.”