The belief that you can’t get pregnant from anal sex has been blown out of the water, after an incredible story from America has revealed that a woman has actually become pregnant in exactly that way.
Men’s Health has reported that Dr Brian Steixner, a urologist from Atlantic City, cites the instance as a case he always remembers from his student days. Back then he was given the opportunity of treating a women born with a rare medical condition called ‘cloacal malformation', which means her rectum, urethra and vagina failed to separate into different tubes when she was still in the womb.
This means urine and faeces drain into a single channel which opens in the perineum. The defect only occurs in one in 50,000 births, and is treated by surgery which creates three channels and the usual two openings: the anus and the vagina.
However, in this woman’s case the surgery went awry, and her body reacted by developing a fistula which joined her womb to her rectum – and her vagina wasn’t able to do its usual job.
Dr Steixner explained that the woman reported she had only had anal sex before getting pregnant because her vagina wasn’t able to fulfil its usual purpose – and, as a result, he could only come to one conclusion: “After doing a whole bunch of X-rays, we determined that she got pregnant from having anal sex,” he told the magazine.
In this highly unusual case, the doctors decided any form of natural childbirth would be unsafe, since nobody’s ever given birth through the anal canal before (!) and opted to perform a C-section on the patient.
Wow ladies! You learn something new every day, right?
What is Cloacal Malformation? Thanks to Great Ormond Street Hospital
What causes cloacal malformation?
Cloacal malformation occurs very early in pregnancy, around five to six weeks after conception. We do not know what stops the rectal, urethral and vaginal tubes separating but it is unlikely to be caused by anything you did or did not do before conception or during early pregnancy.
What are the signs and symptoms of cloacal malformation?
In cloacal malformation, there is a single drainage channel in the perineum instead of a separate rectum, urethra and vagina. Initially, an anorectal malformation (absent anus) may be suspected. The external genitalia may be small and the clitoris oversized, which may lead to an initial diagnosis of a disorder of sex development. On closer examination, a single opening in the perineum becomes apparent.
Cloacal malformation is associated with other malformations such as:
Oesophageal atresia and tracheooesophageal fistula (OA/TOF) where the bottom end of the oesophagus is not developed or is joined to the trachea (windpipe).
Structural heart problems.
Structural problems with the lower spine.
Kidney problems such as hydronephrosis, vesico-ureteric reflux, duplex kidney or ectopic ureters.