Is it possible for a cervical length to increase?? I am just about 31 weeks, my cervix has measured 1.8 for 2 weeks now (I'm on bed rest), and my doctor said that seeing no change is the best case scenario. He made it seem like the shortening is irreversible, and the goal is to prevent more shortening. FWIW he took several measurements over a few minutes, and only "counted" the shortest one (I had a couple close to 3 when my uterus relaxed. Shortest was 1.8).
So is a best case scenario that bed rest can actually increase my cervical length?? If so, that gives me a new goal....because I'm an overachiever like that )
Re: can cervical length increase?
Based on what my Dr said and some other research, it sounds like a cervix cannot lengthen once it has begun to shorten, but it can seem like it's getting longer depending on a bunch of factors like you girls said - the time when it's measured, if the uterus is relaxed, operator variances, and accuracy. It sounds like a cerclage can increase the length, but without it the cervix can't lengthen in its own.
Basically, in the 3 minutes that they probe and measure, they look for the shortest measurement in that time. If the uterus is relaxed that whole time, the measurement will seem slightly longer, so it's kind of a luck of the draw with how everything happens to behave during those two minutes.
I'm no expert but I'll keep hoping! )