A 27-year-old woman revealed all today about a rare medical condition which means she has TWO vaginas side by side. Hazel Jones was diagnosed with the "one in a million" condition uterus didelphys when she was 18, after suffering with difficulties from when her periods started at 14.
She had to lose her virginity twice, and also has to have two smear tests, but has decided not to have surgery to correct the condition.
The condition means a woman has two separate uteruses, two vaginas and two cervixes. It happens when a septum which usually breaks down between two tubes that form the uterus does not break down, leaving two uteruses. Speaking on ITV1's This Morning, Ms Jones, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, said nobody realised anything was different about her until her periods started when she was 14. "That wasn't fun," she told presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield and doctor Dawn Harper, saying she bled from one side then the other. "It wasn't nice. I had friends and I would try and explain to them, 'I'm having a problem' but they had no idea what I was doing. They looked even more confused than I did. "I actually did ask a friend, I said, 'do you have any problem working out which hole to put them in' and she thought I was putting it up my bottom'. "I think I pretty much kept my mouth shut after that for quite a while." "If you are not aware that you have got this it can be really uncomfortable, I thought I was having cystitis, I thought I was having urine infections from a young age, when I wasn't. I was actually tearing the middle septum.
She was 18 when her first serious boyfriend noticed something was "different", prompting her to go to hospital where she was diagnosed with the condition. "They did all the tests and they told me within a couple of hours what it was. But the lady had such a heavy accent I still didn't understand what she was telling me and I just sat there in the waiting room with these notes going, 'I have no idea what I have just been told'. "As soon as I found out what it was I told everybody! I thought it was amazing. It's definitely an ice-breaker at parties. If women want to have a look, I'm quite happy to show them, it's not something I'm embarrassed by."
She will also have to be careful about getting pregnant - she told This Morning she could get pregnant in one then the other which could lead to problems, and also has an increased risk of breech birth and bleeding. But she has declined surgery to change the situation, saying: "They offered to remove the septum but I refused to have the surgery. "They have to treat you like they would a post-op transsexual because if you have something removed from an area like that there's a risk of healing back together. You have to have it separated all the time and it can be very uncomfortable and cause scar tissue."
Ms Jones is now happy to live with the condition, telling the show: "If I had three wishes it wouldn't be on the list of things to change." She said she now has a long-term partner, and her sex life does not suffer because of the condition. "I have never entered into a relationship without explaining the difference about me anyway, never had a bad reaction about it either. But so long as they are aware of what it is I have no issues whatsoever, I have a great sex life now." And when jokingly reminded by Schofield that her boyfriend has a "choice", she quipped: "Most of them get one for the rest of their life, my fella has two.
