Double uterus

Yesterday my friend was telling me that she knows someone with two uterus', how does this work? She was saying that if she were to get pregnant in one uterus she could get pregnant in the other one while still prego w/ the first.  I wouldn't think that would be possible since she would stop ovulating due to the first pregnancy.
Just curious.

[AnnieBrooke]

Here is what I understand, though maybe someone knows a medically documented exception.  Women don't ovulate when pregnant.  A woman could get pregnant in each uterus, but it would have to be from the same cycle, because the LH surges that ripen her eggs stop once the body knows it is pregnant.  More than one egg would have to ripen during that one cycle (which is not the norm) and then both would have to get fertilized (and we all know how hard it can be to get just one egg to fertilize), and then one embryo would have to find its way into one uterus and the other would have to find its way into the other.  A double uterus is rare enough, but all this happening is probably in the category of maybe-occurred-once-in-the-history-of-humankind.  :)  Long and short -- I don't think the friend has to worry about getting pregnant if she is already pregnant.  

[doubleornothing]

From what I have read it does happen. Here is a paper where one of the two twins was lost, but the second survived.  http://cogprints.org/7271/

Here's another article http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2608717/?page=1

and according to Wikipedia - a reliable source I know ... "A number of twin gestations have occurred where each uterus carried its pregnancy separately. A recent example occurred on February 26, 2009, when Sarah Reinfelder of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan delivered two healthy, although seven weeks premature, infants by cesarean section at Marquette General Hospital.[7] It is possible that the deliveries occur at different times, thus the delivery interval could be days or even weeks."

Here is a case in the UK where a woman delivered triplets in 2006. Two were in one womb and the third was in the other womb. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6199363.stm

[doubleornothing]

Also... I have heard that this can happen if each uterus is viable. Some women with uterus didelphys continue to ovulate and have a period from their non-pregnant uterus through out pregnancy. I would think that even though the pregnant uterus isn't ovulating the non-pregnant uterus could continue to ovulate. I'm not 100% sure though. If you read the UK triplet case closer... I think that was her situation, but I have not read it myself.