Annie Charlotte had always struggled with exceptionally heavy periods.
As a teenager, she'd be doubled over in pain each month, left wondering if this was just normal.
So at 16, she went to a clinic with her best friend hoping to get an IUD, desperate for something that would give her relief from the monthly ordeal.
As the nurse began the examination, she discovered things didn't "feel right".
She thought it could be a membrane… but she couldn't fit the coil. She told Annie to go see a doctor, because "there could be something seriously wrong here".
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A month later her mum took her to get an MRI.
"The doctor looked at me and said, 'you have two vaginas, welcome to the very exclusive club'," she recalled.
The 'exclusive club' is called Uterus Didelphys, a rare congenital condition that meant she had been born with two separate uteruses, two cervixes, and two vaginas.
The diagnosis explained so much, yet opened up a world of questions. Annie had joined a very small club — only about 0.3 per cent of women share this unique anatomy, making it one of the rarest reproductive conditions doctors encounter.
Looking back, Annie recalls the signs that had always been there, though she hadn't understood their significance at the time.
"I'd touched myself before, and I'd known there was, like, a wall in the middle, and I'd obviously felt it, but I didn't know that that was any different to another human being's vagina," she shared.
"I had no clue that that meant I had two vaginas. I was completely under the impression that every other woman had a wall in the middle."
More than just a diagnosis.
Along with the diagnosis that day, Annie and her mum received more confronting news: the condition carried a higher risk of miscarriage, and conceiving could prove challenging.
For a teenager who hadn't yet given much thought to having children, it was a lot to process.
"So I was 16 being told I'm completely different to every other woman, and there's a chance that I can't have children. It's not something a 16-year-old ever really thinks about," she said.
"I just had this complete fear of being different.
"I remember crying over it, and I said to the doctor, 'can I just make it one?'."
After the appointment, she went back to the car with her mum.
"We just sat in dead silence," she recalled.
"I don't think my mum even knew what to say to me, we just sat there and we never spoke about it. I didn't really speak to anyone about it. I never told any of my friends at school, no one knew,"
"There was a girl at school who got bullied for having a fringe cut. Because it wasn't in style. Do you know what I mean? Let alone your anatomy being completely different to everybody else's."
The phone call that changed everything.
Annie says there was one person who knew the right thing to say. She received a phone call from her brother that was the first step to acceptance.
"He goes, 'Oh, welcome to the X-Men, you mutant'. And it was funny, and it was exactly what I wanted to hear. I was like, 'you know what? It is funny, and it's not something to be embarrassed about or ashamed of'."
Annie's relationship with her condition began to shift during her university years, when she started opening up about it in unexpected ways.
"When I was at uni, it somehow came up in conversation. We were at a party, and we were just talking about things, and I was like, 'Oh yeah, I have two vaginas.' And my friend was like, 'what?'"
What started as a casual revelation soon became a regular feature of social gatherings.
"It used to become like a party trick. So then every time we would drink, somebody would be like, 'Oh my god, Annie has a secret'."
When recalling that first teary conversation at 16 with the doctor where she was pleading to have surgery, she is grateful he refused.
"Here we are 10 years later. Thank bloody God, he did. Because otherwise I'd be making no money."
Now, she uses her condition as a unique selling point for her OnlyFans subscribers, and also to raise awareness about it through her platforms.
"I love it, and it's definitely given me so much freedom," she said.
You can follow Annie's journey on Instagram and TikTok.
Feature Image: Supplied.
