Septate/Arcuate Uterus??

RunCC37

I had my HSG this morning... Good news is that both tubes are clear. Going into this I was nervous because my doctors have noticed an unusual shape from u/s. We knew the HSG would give us a better idea of what was really going on... Arcuate, septate, etc. I was hoping that it would be mild enough for it not to be a concern, but from the HSG pics it looks pretty severe to me. The doctor prescribed a MRI which will be on Thursday. Anyone with any words of advice? I'm trying not to drive myself nuts until I know exactly what is going on, but it is hard.

ufsandra85

do you have a picture of your hsg you can share? there is a big difference between those 2 things. the link below is a great resource for people with mullerian anomilies and there is a doctor on there that helps us too.

 

 https://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MullerianAnomalies/message/80570

RunCC37

Thanks for the advice, ladies. I'm going to try to stay away from Google because I tend to psych myself out and lose sleep that way. I'll check out the site you suggested to get good info.

I have a picture of my HSG that I managed to upload to my bump account but have no clue how to share it with you (I'm a rookie to this site). Can you tell me how to post the pic?

Wolfette, thank you SO MUCH for sharing your MRI story with me. I have no idea what to expect, and I'm the type of person who prefers to know ahead of time so I can prepare myself mentally. I'm a bit of a spaz about this stuff. I can handle the pain, but emotionally it's hard for me to do these tests. I've spent my whole life avoiding blood work and needles in any way I possibly could (I have a feeling that I'm going to get used to it though...). Would you suggest that I have someone come with me to the MRI? Drive me home? 

RunCC37

Thank you, Wolfette, for copying my picture AND for sharing your blog. I can't tell you how helpful that is for me! I'm going to do my best to just keep breathing and take it one step at a time

futurehuber

Hi there and sorry you are going through this.  They originally thought I had a bicornuate or septate uterus after my HSG.  I did lots of research and looked into various routes of testing. 

If they are thinking it is only a septate or arcuate, then that isn't too bad.  I don't think there are too many issues with an arcuate, or I guess depending on the severity (although a severe one would be bicornuate I believe).  It turned out that I have a slight arcuate uterus, but there shouldn't be any problems per my RE.  And if you have a septate uterus, you can have surgery to remove the septum.  Not that having surgery is a great thing, but at least it is is something that can be corrected. 

That's great you are doing an MRI.  My RE (old RE I should say, haha) wanted me to go straight to surgery.  I asked her to do either a saline ultrasound or MRI first, so we did the saline ultrasound and found out right away I just had the slight arcuate.  Good luck with your MRI!  I hope you get good news!  Oh and the Yahoo group link in the post above was very helpful to me as well.

GL!

Cara1024

futurehuber:

Hi there and sorry you are going through this.  They originally thought I had a bicornuate or septate uterus after my HSG.  I did lots of research and looked into various routes of testing. 

If they are thinking it is only a septate or arcuate, then that isn't too bad.  I don't think there are too many issues with an arcuate, or I guess depending on the severity (although a severe one would be bicornuate I believe).  It turned out that I have a slight arcuate uterus, but there shouldn't be any problems per my RE.  And if you have a septate uterus, you can have surgery to remove the septum.  Not that having surgery is a great thing, but at least it is is something that can be corrected. 

That's great you are doing an MRI.  My RE (old RE I should say, haha) wanted me to go straight to surgery.  I asked her to do either a saline ultrasound or MRI first, so we did the saline ultrasound and found out right away I just had the slight arcuate.  Good luck with your MRI!  I hope you get good news!  Oh and the Yahoo group link in the post above was very helpful to me as well.

GL!

Word for word the exact same thing happened to me as well.  Thankfully Futurehuber was able to tell me through her experience not to got right into surgery like the RE wanted until I had it checked out further.  So glad I did. Good luck at your MRI!!!

RunCC37

Thanks everyone for sharing your advice and personal experiences. Wolfette, your blog is invaluable to me. Like I had mentioned before, I can tough out almost any kind of pain, but I create an unnecessary amount of anxiety for myself by letting my imagination run wild. Knowing the step-by-step and facts about the procedure in advance will help me to overcome the mental hurdles that I will invariably set up for myself. Just a quick question about the MRI... did you go all the way into the machine? Or was your face able to be on the outside? I know that probably sounds ridiculous, but I just want to prep myself. I don't want to act like a complete wimp, lol

Debra4869

RunCC37:

Thanks everyone for sharing your advice and personal experiences. Wolfette, your blog is invaluable to me. Like I had mentioned before, I can tough out almost any kind of pain, but I create an unnecessary amount of anxiety for myself by letting my imagination run wild. Knowing the step-by-step and facts about the procedure in advance will help me to overcome the mental hurdles that I will invariably set up for myself. Just a quick question about the MRI... did you go all the way into the machine? Or was your face able to be on the outside? I know that probably sounds ridiculous, but I just want to prep myself. I don't want to act like a complete wimp, lol

Ticker warning . I had a septate uterus and had it corrected with surgery. My advice to you is to get a saline ultrasound to confirm which type of abnormality you have, SU, BU or AU. If it is a septate, the great news is that it is fixable! My other advice is to find a skilled RE who does these surgeries frequently. I've heard some crazy stories on the bump of women being mislead by REs about uterine abnormalities. Surgery is not bad and very worth it. I'm happy to answer any questions you have. PM me or page me on the Feb 12 moms board. Good luck! I have been where you are and hope you get the answers you need!

Olive925

RunCC37, I was recently diagnosed with a bicornuate uterus.  I had an MRI last month.  It was not bad at all!  I was really worried about feeling claustrophobic so I kept my eyes closed until the very end, when I opened them briefly out of curiosity.  I think I was all the way in for most of the scans, but I was really quite comfortable and relaxed.  The only issue I had was my legs kept twitching as I fell asleep!  Like Wolfette, I had the contrast IV for part of it.  This, also, was no issue for me.

Compared with the HSG, I found the MRI to be a piece of cake!  It was not at all painful (although brief, I found the HSG to be painful) and emotionally, it was not difficult because you don't get your results right away.  I went to the HSG by myself and was blindsided by the results and really wished I had had my husband there!  With the MRI, though, I was totally fine to do it on my own.

Good luck!

RunCC37

I checked out the Yahoo Mullerian Anomalies group - awesome! Thanks for the info.

Debra, how is the saline ultrasound different from the HSG?

Thanks again, everyone, for your advice & encouragement. So helpful! 

RunCC37

Good to know, Wolfette!

EML2011

Good luck with your MRI!!

I had a very severe septated utuerus (it went all the way down to my cervix) removed in Nov 2012. Looking at your HSG it doesn't look like yours is that big but I am NO EXPERT. There is no way to tell if it is arcuate vs. septated from the HSG alone (it has to do with the outer shape of your uterus as well).

RunCC37

I had an MRI last week and my doctor believes it to be arcuate! We are going to proceed without surgery and will start with clomid, trigger and IUI on the next cycle.