Brooke Laird, 24, was told by doctors that her symptoms were just “part of being a woman” – but a scan revealed the real cause of her “excruciating” pain
A woman endured “excruciating” pain and was initially dismissed as having “women’s problems”, but actually had the extremely rare condition of having two wombs.
Brooke Laird, 24, experienced years of agonising pain before a scan confirmed the diagnosis. She’s now campaigning for the smear test age limit to be reduced from 25 to 18. Teacher Brooke said: “For 10 years I’ve been in excruciating pain to the point I sometimes couldn’t stand up, lie down or sleep. I’ve been told numerous times the symptoms I had were just part of being a woman and to take paracetamol.”
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Her concerns were downplayed until a startling discovery during a scan: “I was eventually referred for a scan and when I saw the shock on the radiographer’s face I knew something was wrong,” she told the Daily Record.
“It turns out I’ve got two wombs and they were crushing other organs in my stomach fighting for space. No wonder I was in agony.”
Affecting a mere 0.3 per cent of women globally, Brooke’s condition, called didelphys, was unbeknownst to her despite experiencing severe symptoms.
Recounting the events that led up to her diagnosis, Brooke, who has a twin sister named Morgan, vividly remembers how intense the pain became: “At the end of March I was in so much pain that I had to go to A&E twice in one day. I knew something wasn’t right but again, I was asked if I was stressed, if it was the time of the month, and eventually sent home to take paracetamol.
“I’d been sent home from my work because the pain was so bad but I didn’t have a clue what was going on.
“I really couldn’t take anymore so made an appointment to see a GP who had one feel of my tummy and referred me for an ultrasound.”
On May 9, the long-awaited scan shed light on the mystery, uncovering Brooke’s unusual anatomical feature of having two wombs.
“I noticed the look of shock on the radiographer’s face and I asked what was wrong.
“She said ‘did you know you had two wombs? .'”.
“Apparently, the cause of all the pain over the years was that they were both fighting for space and crushing other organs.
“I’ve been referred to a specialist now and will need to wait to see what the future holds.
“It could be challenging for me to get pregnant, and if I did, a baby could grow in each of the wombs. It also means I could go through the menopause twice.
“I feel unique, but I can’t help thinking if cervical screening was offered to women from 18 instead of 25, it could have been picked up earlier and something could have been done for me.
“It’s not acceptable that smear tests aren’t offered until 25.”
Brooke, who shares her home with fiancee Ruaridh Higgins, aged 23, added: “I’ve been looking for support groups but because the condition is so rare, I’m struggling to find anyone else in the same situation as me.
“My family has been so supportive, but sometimes I just feel alone dealing with this.”
In Scotland, the age at which women are invited for their inaugural screening to check for signs of cervical cancer was raised in 2016 from 20 to 25, an adjustment echoed across the remainder of the UK; the then chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood stated this change was to bring Scotland in sync with the rest of the country.