At the young age of 13, Emma Nies found out she had two uteruses in a very scary way.
BuzzFeed spoke to Emma, who shared her story on TikTok. She said she was in the car with her mom one day when she started bleeding. "At first, I just thought it was my period because it felt just like a period. But, after a minute or two, I looked down at my lap and there was blood everywhere. It just kept coming out and I had no idea what was going on," she explained.
However, Emma didn't have any pain. "The strange thing was that it never hurt; I really didn't even feel much at all. After my mom noticed, she freaked out a little bit because it was obviously a lot of blood and I was pretty young, but she tried to remain calm."
Her mom decided to take her to the emergency room because there was so much blood. "By the time we were there, there was blood everywhere. It was all over the seat and it even went onto the floor of the car. It sounds super gross, and for a 13-year-old, it was really hard to deal with," Emma said.
When Emma and her mom got to the ER, she was rushed into a room without even being checked in at the front desk. "Unfortunately, when I got into the room, I was interrogated about my sexual history. I had to explain to multiple doctors that I wasn't sexually active, though they didn't believe me. It was a hard conversation for me to have at that age. Anyways, I had a couple of doctors come in and look at me. But because there was so much blood, they couldn't really see inside of me very well. And, because they couldn't see, none of them had any idea what was going on with me."
After the bleeding stopped, Emma was eventually sent home. "They decided that because most of the bleeding had stopped, and because the blood was very dark (meaning it was old blood, not fresh), and because I wasn't in any pain, that it was safe for me to go home and just take it easy."
Over the next couple of weeks, Emma saw multiple doctors to make sure everything was OK. "None of the doctors could figure out what had happened. Finally, a couple of months later, I was sent to a specialist. The specialist took an ultrasound and couldn't see much. So, later, I had an MRI done and the doctor could clearly see that I had an extra uterus," she explained.
Emma's was told her condition isn't common — it occurs in about 1 out of every 2,000 women. Her doctor also told her that most women don't know they have a second uterus until they get pregnant or have other related surgeries down the road.
So, what is life like for Emma with two uteruses? She has to be aware that she is extra fertile. "I am significantly more likely to get pregnant, and because of that I should always use extra protection. I was also told that it is possible for me to get pregnant in both of my uteruses. It is unlikely, but it CAN happen," she said.
Emma said she wasn't always so open about her condition. "I think it's kind of funny how I used to hide this from everyone. But, now that I am older, I'm OK with essentially the whole world knowing," she explained.
She also said that after she posted her TikTok (see below), people were confused as to why she bled so much in the first place since her periods are normal now. "Basically, the first year of having my periods, I was only bleeding from one of my uteruses. The second uterus was shedding blood, but it was not draining properly as it should. Essentially, the blood in one uterus was being blocked up and stored because it had no way to get out. Eventually, the uterus became so full that the opening finally burst and all the blood came out at once," she explained.
Since then, Emma has had a minor surgery to expand her uterus opening so it can properly drain every month.