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Cervical agenesis is estimated to occur in 1 in 80,000 females. It is often associated with deformity of the vagina; one study found that 48% of patients with cervical agenesis had a normal, functional vagina, while the rest of the cases were accompanied by vaginal hypoplasia.
The prevalence of uterine malformation is estimated to be 6.7% in the general population, slightly higher (7.3%) in the infertility population, and significantly higher in a population of women with a history of recurrent miscarriages (16%).
Vaginal hypoplasia is estimated to occur in 1 in 4,000–5,000 live female births. It is often unnoticed until adolescence when pain and a lack of menstrual flow indicates the condition.
The first line of therapy after diagnosis typically involves the administration of the combined oral contraceptive pill, medroxyprogesterone acetate or a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist to suppress menstruation and thereby relieve pain. Surgically, cervical agenesis has historically been treated through hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) to relieve symptoms caused by hematocolpos (the accumulation of menstrual fluid in the vagina). Other surgical methods of management involve the creation of an anastomotic connection between the uterus and vagina by neovaginoplasty or recanalization of the cervix. Outcomes in these cases are generally poor, since the natural functions of the cervix—such as mucus production and providing a barrier against ascending infection—cannot be replicated. Furthermore, the success rate of uterovaginal anastomosis is less than 50% and most patients require multiple surgeries while many develop cervical stenotis. Despite this, several pregnancies have been reported in women with cervical agenesis who underwent surgical treatment.
Cervical stenosis may impact natural fertility by impeding the passage of semen into the uterus. In the context of infertility treatments, cervical stenosis may complicate or prevent the use of intrauterine insemination (IUI) or in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures.
Cervical stenosis may be present from birth or may be caused by other factors:
- Surgical procedures performed on the cervix such as colposcopy, cone biopsy, or a cryosurgery procedure
- Trauma to the cervix
- Repeated vaginal infections
- Atrophy of the cervix after menopause
- Cervical cancer
- Radiation
- Cervical nabothian cysts
It is a rare condition, with only approximately 60 cases reported as of 1989, and 75 cases as of 2005. However, due to the stigma of intersex conditions and the issues of keeping accurate statistics and records among doctors, it is likely there are more cases than reported.
Müllerian agenesis or müllerian aplasia, Mayer–Rokitansky–Küster–Hauser syndrome, or vaginal agenesis is a congenital malformation characterized by a failure of the Müllerian duct to develop, resulting in a missing uterus and variable degrees of vaginal hypoplasia of its upper portion. Müllerian agenesis (including absence of the uterus, cervix and/or vagina) is the cause in 15% of cases of primary amenorrhoea. Because most of the vagina does not develop from the Müllerian duct, instead developing from the urogenital sinus along with the bladder and urethra, it is present even when the Müllerian duct is completely absent.
Because ovaries do not develop from the Müllerian ducts, affected women might have normal secondary sexual characteristics but are infertile due to the lack of a functional uterus. However, motherhood is possible through use of gestational surrogates. Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH) is hypothesized to be a result of autosomal dominant inheritance with incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity, which contributes to the complexity involved in identifying of the underlying mechanisms causing the condition. Because of the variance in inheritance, penetrance and expressivity patterns, MRKH is subdivided into two types: type 1, in which only the structures developing from the Müllerian duct are affected (the upper vagina, cervix, and uterus), and type 2, where the same structures are affected, but is characterized by the additional malformations of other body systems most often including the renal and skeletal systems. MRKH type 2 includes MURCS (Müllerian Renal Cervical Somite). The majority of MRKH syndrome cases are characterized as sporadic, but familial cases have provided evidence that, at least for some patients, MRKH is an inherited disorder. The underlying causes of MRKH syndrome is still being investigated, but several causative genes have been studied for their possible association with the syndrome. Most of these studies have served to rule-out genes as causative factors in MRKH, but thus far, only WNT4 has been associated with MRKH with hyperandrogenism.
The medical eponym honors August Franz Josef Karl Mayer (1787–1865), Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky (1804–1878), Hermann Küster (1879–1964), and Georges Andre Hauser (1921–2009).
WNT4 (found on the short arm (p) of chromosome 1) has been clearly implicated in the atypical version of this disorder. A genetic mutation causes a leucine to proline residue substitution at amino acid position 12. This occurrence reduces the intranuclear levels of β catenin. In addition, it removes the inhibition of steroidogenic enzymes like 3β-hydroxysteriod dehydrogenase and 17α-hydroxylase. Patients therefore have androgen excess. Furthermore, without WNT4, the Müllerian duct is either deformed or absent. Female reproductive organs, such as the cervix, fallopian tubes, ovaries, and much of the vagina, are hence affected.
An association with a deletion mutation in the long arm (q) of chromosome 17 (17q12) has been reported. The gene LHX1 is located in this region and may be the cause of a number of these cases.
Individuals with CAVD can reproduce with the assistance of modern technology with a combination of testicular sperm extraction and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). However, as the risk of either cystic fibrosis or renal agenesis is likely to be higher in the children, genetic counseling is generally recommended.
Vaginal hypoplasia is the underdevelopment or incomplete development of the vagina. It is a birth defect or congenital abnormality of the female genitourinary system.
Surgical intervention depends on the extent of the individual problem. With a didelphic uterus surgery is not usually recommended.
A uterine septum can be resected in a simple out-patient procedure that combines laparoscopy and hysteroscopy. This procedure greatly decreases the rate of miscarriage for women with this anomaly.
Aphallia has no known cause. It is not linked to deficient hormone amounts or action, but rather to a failure of the fetal genital tubercle to form between 3 and 6 weeks after conception. The urethra of an affected child opens on the perineum.
There are two main populations of CAVD; the larger group is associated with
cystic fibrosis and occurs because of a mutation in the CFTR gene, while the smaller group (estimated between 10 and 40%) is associated with Unilateral Renal agenesis (URA). The genetic basis of this second group is not well understood.
Mutation of the CFTR gene is found to result in obstructive azoospermia in postpubertal males with cystic fibrosis. Strikingly, CAVD is one of the most consistent features of cystic fibrosis as it affects 98-99% of individuals in this CF patient population. In contrast, acute or persistent respiratory symptoms present in only 51% of total CF patients.
In the subset of males with both CBAVD and URA, the CFTR mutation has been shown to occur at a rate only slightly higher than the overall population. Thus, McCallum, et al. have suggested another mutation may be responsible for this condition.
In an embryo, the conversion of the gonads into testicles in males-to-be and into ovaries in females-to-be is the function of Leydig cells. In testicular agenesis, this process fails. Penile agenesis can be caused by testicular agenesis. Testes are the sole producer of 5-alpha dihydrotestosterone (5aDHT) in the male body. Where the gonads fail to metamorphose into testes, there is no 5aDHT. Therefore, the masculising process that builds the genital tubercle, the precursor to the penis, is stillborn. When this happens, the child is born with both penile and testicular agenesis and is known by the slang term "nullo". This combination of both conditions is estimated to occur in between 20-30 million male births.
Penile agenesis can exist independently after full testicular development; in this case its cause is unknown.
Penile agenesis is a birth defect in humans, occurring about once in 5–6 million male births, in which a male child is born without a penis.
A partner condition is testicular or gonadal agenesis. This is when a male child is born without gonads and consequently develops no testes. Penile agenesis occurs often as a consequence of Testicular agenesis, but the reverse is never the case. Most patients in both cases have no known family history and usually have an otherwise normal male anatomy.
Although rare, this condition is often treatable with surgery. In most cases, the blind hemivagina is opened, and the fluid drained.
In medicine, agenesis () refers to the failure of an organ to develop during embryonic growth and development due to the absence of primordial tissue. Many forms of agenesis are referred to by individual names, depending on the organ affected:
- Agenesis of the corpus callosum - failure of the Corpus callosum to develop
- Renal agenesis - failure of one or both of the kidneys to develop
- Phocomelia - failure of the arms or legs to develop
- Penile agenesis - failure of penis to develop
- Müllerian agenesis - failure of the uterus and part of the vagina to develop
- Agenesis of the gallbladder - failure of the Gallbladder to develop. A person may not realize they have this condition unless they undergo surgery or medical imaging, since the gallbladder is neither externally visible nor essential.
OHVIRA, or Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome, is a rare anomaly of the Müllerian ducts. In most cases, it is presented as a double uterus with unilateral obstructed (or blind) hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis. Although the true incidence is unknown, it has been reported to be between 0.1% and 3.8%.
99% of cervical polyps will remain benign and 1% will at some point show neoplastic change. Cervical polyps are unlikely to regrow.
Ear agenesis is a medical condition in which people are born without ears.
Because the middle and inner ears are necessary for hearing, people with complete agenesis of the ears are totally deaf. Minor agenesis that affects only the visible parts of the outer ear, which may be called microtia, typically produces cosmetic concerns and perhaps hearing impairment if the opening to the ear canal is blocked, but not deafness.
Cervical polyps are most common in women who have had children and perimenopausal women. They are rare in pre-menstrual girls and uncommon in post-menopausal women.
MURCS association (a variant of Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome) is a very rare developmental disorder that primarily affects the reproductive and urinary systems involving MUllerian agenesis, Renal agenesis, Cervicothoracic Somite abnormalities. It affects only females.
True cervical pregnancies tend to abort; if, however, the pregnancy is located higher in the canal and the placenta finds support in the uterine cavity it can go past the first trimester. With the placenta being implanted abnormally extensive vaginal bleeding can be expected at time of delivery and placental removal. While early cervical pregnancies may abort spontaneously or can be managed with excision, D&C, suturing, electrocautery, and tamponading, by medication such as methotrexate, and/or by uterine artery embolization, a more advanced pregnancy may require a hysterectomy to control bleeding. The more advanced the pregnancy the higher the risk for a major bleeding necessitating a hysterectomy.
On a very rare occasion, a cervical pregnancy results in the birth of a live baby, typically the pregnancy is in the upper part of the cervical canal and manages to extend into the lower part of the uterine cavity.
A cervical pregnancy can develop together with a normal intrauterine pregnancy; such a heterotopic pregnancy will call for expert management as to not to endanger the intrauterine pregnancy.
Atresia is a condition in which an orifice or passage in the body is (usually abnormally) closed or absent.
Examples of atresia include:
- Biliary atresia, a condition in newborns in which the common bile duct between the liver and the small intestine is blocked or absent.
- Choanal atresia, blockage of the back of the nasal passage, usually by abnormal bony or soft tissue.
- Esophageal atresia, which affects the alimentary tract and causes the esophagus to end before connecting normally to the stomach.
- Imperforate anus, malformation of the opening between the rectum and anus.
- Intestinal atresia, malformation of the intestine, usually resulting from a vascular accident in utero.
- Microtia, absence of the ear canal or failure of the canal to be tubular or fully formed (can be related to Microtia, a congenital deformity of the pinna, or outer ear).
- Ovarian follicle atresia, the degeneration and subsequent resorption of one or more immature ovarian follicles.
- Potter sequence, congenital decreased size of the kidney leading to absolutely no functionality of the kidney, usually related to a single kidney.
- Pulmonary atresia, malformation of the pulmonary valve in which the valve orifice fails to develop.
- Renal agenesis, only having one kidney.
- Tricuspid atresia, a form of congenital heart disease whereby there is a complete absence of the tricuspid valve, and consequently an absence of the right atrioventricular connection.
- Vaginal atresia, a congenital occlusion of the vagina or subsequent adhesion of the walls of the vagina, resulting in its occlusion.