IAmA girl who was born with an imperforate hymen. I didn't find out until after surgery for suspected appendicitis. AMA

I will never complain about period pain again.

Haha. Well I was kinda lucky I guess. After the initial agonizing pain, I never really got cramps afterwards. Now I'm on the pill and everything is a dream (as far as periods go anyway, lol).

You should tell people your uterus is comma shaped instead of banana shaped. It keeps the verbage in the punctuation family which seems to be important for some reason: colons, periods, now commas.

But the whole thing sounds more delightful if it's named after tasty fruit. :)

I like how you maintain a positive outlook on the event. The world needs more people like you. :)

Unrelated related story, once I had my appendix removed, my elder brother came up to me and asked me how I felt. Under the influence of general anesthesia, I told him that I felt "lighter and more agile!"

I had entire conversations that I thought weren't real coming out of it. Apparently I said some weird shit. None of it as clever as that, lol.

I'd say the worst of the news is that you're missing the kidney, the rest.. welp, life goes on.

I learned afterwards that reproductive tract deformities usually accompany missing kidneys, which is kinda interesting.

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Not exactly. My kidney's just not there - it hasn't been replaced by cysts. I think what I have is unilateral renal agenesis, which is linked to abnormal female reproductive tract development. My kidney is somewhat bigger than normal though, to compensate.

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That's interesting, I only just wikipedia-d MCDK so I don't know much about it. Either way, same sorta things happen so I guess it doesn't matter. The kidney develops at the same time/place as the reproductive system from what I've read, so that's why there's a link.

Do you notice any health problems associated with not having a second kidney? Like getting fatigued more quickly?

No, not at all. But then again, I've always only had one kidney, so I can't really compare it to anything. But I feel like what I assume healthy is supposed to feel like, so all good. :)

I had a defective valve in one of my kidneys when I was born, which caused infection and required it to be removed, or else it would spread or something. I forget what exactly. Regardless, a few months after I was born they removed one of my kidneys, and I have pretty much never been in a situation where I worry because I have one kidney. I will instinctively protect my one side if I see some something damaging coming at me from that side, but other than that, not a lot to worry about. I also have one super kidney, which apparently compensates for doing twice the work. The body is pretty fucking cool, man.

Superkidneys unite!

My doctor said that only something really extreme like a car accident would cause significant damage to the kidney. At the time though, I was doing karate, and all the instructors were super cautious about it so that stopped being fun. They probably knew that it would take something pretty brutal to damage it, but didn't want to test it for fear of hurting me, which sucked.

Considering both the reproductive and urinary systems are so closely intertwined, it makes you wonder if one evolved out of the other, or if they were a single system at one point in the past.

Birds and reptiles (and monotremes) have a single hole called a cloaca for both excretory and reproductive purposes. So yes, they were a single system at one point in time. :)

In terms of embryological development of a fetus, they are intertwined. It's very neat and also kind of explains why the OP has a missing kidney and ovary (I'm guessing on the same side)

I don't really feel like explaining it all, haha, but one interesting fact is that your kidneys started development basically at the level of your hip as a fetus. As you grew the kidneys basically remained at the same level and, hence, moved upwards to their final adult position. This all happens before birth. Kidney transplants are also placed in the hip/lower abdominal region.

Yep, both missing on the left side.

Well yeah, it was a bit of a shock hearing that at 13, but I figured if I'd lived that long without one then the rest of my life shouldn't be that much trouble. My single kidney is a bit larger to compensate for the missing one, and I absolutely can't ignore a UTI should I get one. But apart from that, unless I receive a massive blow to the area which damages it, it should serve me well for the remainder of my average lifespan. Apparently there are quite a few people only born with one kidney, but they don't find out about it unless they undergo surgery/scans for unrelated things like I did, or until they're opened up on an autopsy table.

Also, treat hypertension aggressively and don't mess with diabetes, both well-known killers of kidneys. You've only got one, so treat it like your life depends on it.

Yeah I had my blood pressure checked right away at one stage when I was getting really frequent nose bleeds. But everything's fine. There's a bit of history in my family of diabetes so I'll definitely make sure to look after myself.

I have a unicornuate uterus (banana shaped!), with one ovary and a missing kidney as well. Well, sort of. I'm missing a kidney, but there's an ovary where the kidney should be. It doesn't work, though.

Fertility wise, it's kind of a pain in the ass, but it's totally possible. I had our first 5 months ago, and it's really typical for babies to be born pretty damn premature with our little half uteruses, but it doesn't always happen that way. Mine was born just a couple weeks early, with no ill effects.

You'll find that you carry the baby a bit higher than normal and you'll look 9 months pregnant from about 5 months on, but seriously, it's totally possible!

Good luck!

Haha, that's awesome. Thanks for posting! :D

What repercussions will this have? How is fertility affected?

Well, with the missing ovary alone there's less chance of actually conceiving a child. Coupled with the dodgy shaped uterus, there's a much bigger chance that if I do get pregnant, I'll miscarry. This is what the doctor told me anyway. If I wanted children, I don't think it will be an impossible venture and I would look at a second opinion if I did want kids.

although it might be a bit premature have you though about the idea of freezing some of your eggs?

Definitely. But I'm not sure if I will. I think if I get pregnant, I get pregnant. If it ends up being impossible and I really want a child, then I'll either try to adopt, or just get a lot of cats. The main issue with freezing eggs is that, while it will improve my chances of conceiving, I'll still probably have trouble carrying the baby to full term. I don't know, I guess I'll rethink it when I start to get clucky, lol.

I'd definitely adopt. There are a million kids in the US alone who would love a banana shaped mommy. :P

Mommy herself is more pear shaped, lol. But yes, I'd prefer to adopt over risking complications with my banana uterus. Or even give birth in general. It sounds traumatic, so I'll just let someone else do it.

How many cats=1 child?

Considering they don't cry, poop in designated spots and are generally quiet and not in your face... a quarter.

poop in designated spots

Well, children actually do that more and more when they get older... and cats do that less and less as they get older.

I guess but it all comes full circle eventually, lol.

So, assuming you want to live like the average American and have 2.5 kids, you are going to need 10 cats. Not bad.

Seems reasonable... right?

You are on BC anyways, but just remember not to go off unless you are really willing to chance getting pregnant. I have two friends who were both told they would never get pregnant without help, if at all, and ended up getting pregnant at a young age because they thought they couldn't.

Glad the BC is helping, I can't imagine that kind of pain!

Oh yeah, my dodgy reproductive system has done nothing to earn my trust so far, so no way am I trusting it to keep me baby free, lol. Besides, I haven't been told that I'll never get pregnant, just that it's very unlikely to be successful, so I'll keep with the BC. :D

She is not a chicken

I can be whatever I want to be, dammit!

I'm an engineer, not a doctor, but I wonder that maybe since they did the repair early before you were fully grown, that the uterus still had a lot of growing to do. It's also pretty elastic so maybe it won't be a problem.

My question: Since you have only one ovary, does that mean that you only have a period every other month? Does that mean that the "rythum method" works well for you? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar-based_contraceptive_methods#Knaus.E2.80.93Ogino_or_rhythm_method

I have a period every month. Before I started birth control I could feel when I was ovulating, which wasn't every month, and I only got pain on the right side where the ovary is. So I guess that was a fair estimate of when I was fertile/infertile but my periods were never really regular enough to be able to predict it using numbers. (plus I'm probably too lazy to keep track of when things happen anyway)

Oh, I forgot to mention that there's possibly also scarring along my fallopian tube because of all that blood being where it shouldn't be, which could also lessen the chance of conception.

Did doctors mention any kind of increased risk of ectopic pregnancy due to fallopian scarring?

No. But then again I was 13 and my head was already reeling, and it's never really come up since. I might ask my doc next time I see her. :)

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Oh god. The pill was amazing for me. I'm so sorry you have to deal with that. My friend bled for well over a month continuously, I'm not sure if they ever figured out what was up but the pill got it under control.

I'm sure your doctors just don't want to deal with future Needs_An_Adult who may want children and sue (not that I think you would, considering). Offer to sign a lot of contracts promising not to do so and maybe they'll help, lol.

When I was 13, I had an emergency operation on the right side of my stomach. They thought it was my appendix. Turns out my large bowel had perforated and had been leaking the contents of my food intake for the past 2 weeks into my abdomen. Left me with 3, 3inch scars. Feels good man, most painful experience ever.

Well that sounds significantly worse. :/ But yes, if your pain was anything like mine it's not good at all. I understand why they default an appendix diagnosis, but I wish there was some sort of quick test to confirm it before they open people up, hah.

The quickest thing they can do is an ultrasound to see if it's enlarged at all. But even then that takes a while and in my experience it's not very accurate (I was misdiagnosed with appendicitis as well).

They did blood tests on me and found some signs of infection, which seemed to go with their idea of appendicitis so they ran with it. I guess they would have had to cut me open anyway for the clean up, so no real harm done.

Look on the bright side. At least you didn't have an emergency operation on the wrong side of your stomach!

Oh no, really?

One of my friends had appendicitis, they opened her up on her right side, expecting it to be there. But hers ended up on the left side for some reason. Yay, two scars!

The same thing happened to my mother. She never got her period by 12 (we're hispanic, our family usually starts at 8/9). She got extremely ill at 13 & landed in the hospital. Turns out she did start her period around the age she was supposed to, but because her hymen had no hole, she literally had years worth of backed up coagulated blood that was beginning to shut down her organs.

That's crazy, I'm so glad the pain alerted me fairly quickly and it didn't end up like that! It's a wonder she didn't feel it before she got so sick.

is sex for pleasure something you're concerned with?

I've had sex a couple of times, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm just not completely used to it/broken in yet but there is a bit of discomfort sometimes, but not always. As far as I know my vagina hasn't been affected by this so I'm assuming if I keep at it it'll get better. Before I had sex though I was very concerned that something might have been wrong with me, but with a carefully crafted New Year's resolution I proved to myself that all was well. ;)

Make them slow down. The discomfort you're experiencing will subside simply by not rushing into power thrusting in the first 5 minutes. Let yourself become accustomed to him being inside you before allowing him to speed up. Don't worry about making whomever you're having sex with take his time, if this bothers him he can go fuck himself instead. It's your body.

Through regular activity you likely won't have to go through the above every time in future as you loosen up, there's absolutely no need for you to experience discomfort right now though. Slow it down and you'll stretch out for the individual session, resulting in no discomfort and better sex. It will return to normal afterwards and you'll need to go through the same thing again each time, but as I said - there's no need for discomfort at all.

Also, same advice applies to anal. Not that I'm suggesting you are, some people reading might though.

My boyfriend is really good about things and takes things slow until I'm comfortable. I'd just like things to be a little rougher, lol, but we'll work up to that. :D

what's your New Year Resolution?

My 2010-2011 New Year's resolution was to get a finger inside to make sure it worked, lol. It was a bit of an ordeal and took me a couple of weeks to finally achieve. (I was 18, which is probably kinda old to be starting experimenting like that, but it took me that long to muster up the courage)

Ah you remind me of a friend. I don't remember what exactly the problem is, but I know it involves her hymen, and that so far the thought of anything going inside her(her finger even) is painful to just think about, let alone do.

When I actually did it, it didn't really hurt. Just a little bit uncomfortable. So I really shouldn't have stressed at all. But when the rest of your reproductive system is slightly dodgy you can't really help but to worry, hah. She could maybe consider getting her hymen removed if it's causing that much trouble? I decided to just keep at it - pesky hymen's not causing trouble anymore, lol.

Hopefully this doesn't sound excessively creepy, but I was curious as as to what a "banana shaped uterus" was and googled it.

As far as I can tell a "unicornuate uterus" differs from a normal uterus behind the cervix, so the vagina shouldn't be affected. And if they were operating at your hymen and stomach it doesn't sound like anything happened to your clitoris.

If there's only a bit of discomfort but no pain, you're probably just a bit nervous and tense, which is completely normal.

Doesn't seem like any of this would affect recreational sex. It does get better, just try and relax, and communicate with your partner, especially when you feel discomfort.

Best of luck with everything.

(I am not a doctor.)

The clitoris is fine. :) I'm sure everything else will get better with practice.

My niece, who was two-years old at the time, had a similarly blocked hymen entrance, according to her mother, that a clinic doctor discovered in a normal exam. He gave my sister some ointment to rub on at night that would eventually dissolve the skin without pain. It worked and my niece never knew about the abnormality that could have complicated her life like it did yours.

By the way, thanks to CHIPS, this medical problem was able to be quickly diagnosed and resolved with no pain, specialist fanfare or exorbitant costs.

After reading this AMA and this comment, I'm pretty sure the first thing I'm going to say if I give birth to a girl is "CHECK HER HYMEN!!!"

Thank you reddit, for turning me into a crazy future parent.

I fully believe hymen checking should be standard procedure. :)

I wish this could have been discovered before things got hectic. What you described sounds like the perfect solution. I've heard that otherwise, they perform non-emergency surgery before the girl hits puberty. I don't think it's very common to discover it in surgery for a supposedly unrelated issue.

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I went home from school sometime in the afternoon because I was feeling sick from the pain, but we didn't decide to go to the hospital until the next morning. I guess we were hoping the pain would just go away, lol. I was pretty scared about going since I suspected myself that it was appendicitis and had never been in hospital/had surgery before. But my mum never really gave me a choice, and thank goodness for that.

So do you still talk to the guy who broke your hymen, or is he just kind of a jerk about it now?

My surgeon? I don't even remember his name. Does that make me a hussy?

Here is a related video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELE4JS8XAxc

NSFW / NSFL

Saw title. NOPE. I honestly don't care how they fixed it, just as long as it is, lol.

I hear opening things up though can be quite... extreme though. I wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of 4 months worth of pressurized lady goop.

What the actual fuck, why did I watch that all the way through?!

Dude, -I- didn't even watch it all the way through. I already know it's gonna be nasty, lol.

How old are you now?

I'm 19 now.

I have unilateral renal agenesis (sounds cooler that way!) that wasn't discovered until I was 21. They did a CT scan because I was having severe abdominal pain and the ultrasounds they did trying to find appendicitis were practically useless. In my case, it was only ovarian cysts in the reproductive department. I, too, was told I wouldn't likely bear children, but I'm looking at my super awesome two-year-old right now. Do you even want kids? I mean, getting a fist bump from a little girl after a lightsaber duel is pretty badass.

Well I'm only 19, and still studying, so kids aren't on the cards at all yet. Maybe one day. :)

And they said when I had my ultrasound that I had a cyst too, but nothing ever came of it so I dunno. Might have just been dust on the screen.

You said they put a hole in your hymen, why didn't they remove the whole thing? Seems it would be better for you so you wouldn't have to deal with the discomfort of popping it entirely, for lack of a better term.

I guess they only do as much as they need to. Yes they could have removed the whole thing, but on the other hand, I could be an idiot who'd then be angry about it/can't confirm my virginity/whatever other reason you can think of. But yes, removing the whole thing would have been preferable, but some things can't be asked when the patient is knocked out, lol.

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Well they didn't know until they had me opened up in surgery, and saw my body was filling up with menstrual blood. I guess they decided it was easier just to do it then. I don't mind really. I wouldn't want to have to have it opened up while I was awake, or get knocked out again, so it went the way it should have I think.

How... how do you verify an AMA like this?

I guess I could upload my CT scan and show you my missing kidney. Except that's buried in my mother's wardrobe at the moment... I'm not sure how I'd verify the hymen thing though short of digging up medical records and showing you the chicken scrawl my doctor wrote, haha.

Could always upload a picture of the scar I guess? I'm not sure how much proof AMAs need though, tbh.

I could do that if evidence becomes an issue. :)

are you able to get kids in the future?

My chances are decreased because I only have one ovary and possible scarring along my fallopian tube. Also, because my uterus is an irregular shape I might have a higher chance of miscarriages. But it is possible. :)

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I honestly don't blame you.

Will you still be able to have babies?

Maybe. It'll be tricky because I only have one ovary, so less eggs; scarring along my fallopian tube, which makes it harder for things to travel through it; and because my uterus is a weird shape which could mean a higher chance of miscarriage. But it's possible.

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Yeah I've heard, so I'm really glad now that the pain was bad enough to alert me that something was really wrong. I imagine the resolution would be horrific. :/

I once had salmonella poisoning, and they also opened me up thinking it was an appendicitis, only they left that ticking time bomb inside of me once they saw it was not the problem.

At least when people mention the scar, I can say "oh I had my appendix taken out" and not "oh I had a hymen from hell that decided to let me fill up with menstrual fluid". A much easier conversation, lol.