YOUTUBE personality Cassandra Bankson was amazed to discover that she has two vaginas during a routine kidney scan.
Cassandra has been afflicted by severe acne since she was a teenager and even had to leave school because the bullying got so bad.
But the 22-year-old — who also works as a model — shocked her fans last year when she announced the discovery of her second vagina on her channel, DiamondsAndHeels14.
After starting the channel just four years ago, Cassandra has nearly one million subscribers and more than 100 million total views.
In her videos, she gives advice on everything from overcoming bullying to applying make up and treating skincare concerns.
However, last year, after she began having a pain in her lower back, an examination discovered that she had only one kidney — and a second working vagina.
Cassandra, who lives in San Francisco but travels the world modelling, volunteering and connecting with fans, said: “When we got the test results back, the doctor said I only had one kidney and flippantly added that I have two vagina's — as she suspected.
“There is one vaginal opening but inside there are two vagina's, two uteri, two cervixes and two fallopian tubes.
“Most vagina's are one large cavity but this is a complete separation into two different cavities.
“I was shocked and the doctor explained to me that it was like an upside nose.
“I didn’t really know what to make of it — I was just in shock but I don’t really let it get in the way of my life.
“It certainly helped explain a lot of things.”
While the condition may not lead to her being unable to conceive or leave her more susceptible to cancers common to women, it can lead to complications.
Cassandra added: “Ever since I was younger I would go to the doctor because I was bleeding for 28 days or I would have two periods a month — but they never suspected I had a second vagina.
“I always had really bad cramps — I could not move or my bowels would just not want to behave because the cramps were so bad.
“It is extremely difficult to deal with because you don’t know whether your period is going to last a week or three.
“As far as my understanding of how it affects a person’s sex life — for some people having two vagina's can make it very painful — for others I assume there are more nerve endings so it could be more pleasurable.”
Cassandra added: “I’m definitely nervous about having to explain this to future partners. It’s not something I’m looking forward to.
“It’s obviously a huge deal and I have no real idea how this is going to affect my life so it’s something we would have to talk about.
“But hopefully it won’t be an issue — when I do meet someone I’ll be looking for an emotional connection, somebody to laugh and joke with — the sex side of things isn’t a huge issue for me.”
Despite the rarity of her case, Cassandra found her family very supportive when she made the announcement.
She added: “I kind of walked in and said, ‘guess what mum? I’m twice the woman — I have two vaginas’. She really didn’t know what to say and my dad was really shocked. He’s a math guy so was trying to figure out how this would even be possible but they’re cool with it.
“It’s no real issue for my friends — I just tell them that I’m pretty special but they just see me as Cassy — not Cassy with the two vaginas.”
Cassandra hit the big time when she began making videos about her chronic acne and how she covers it up — with the most popular one clocking over 25 million views.
She has suffered severe bullying throughout her life because of her acne and thought that having two vagina's may have led to the hormonal imbalance that was causing it.
She said: “I got my first pimple at eight or nine years old and kids would make comments about it.
“I realised I was different and other people didn’t have that on their face. I would be in the grocery store and children would point at me and say ‘mummy what’s wrong with her face.’
“It was incredibly difficult to deal with. I ended up seeing doctors and dermatologists but the bullying got really bad.
“The school counsellor would look at me and tell me to stop being such a drama queen — saying that kids will be kids. The acne got really bad and it ended up covering 90 per cent of my chest, face and back. By that point, I had to leave public school because of the bullying. I had zero confidence and just did not like the person I was. I was incredibly quiet and it was painful to talk to other people.
“The You Tube channel and community completely changed that — it helped make me into the confident person I am today.”
She spoke with one of New York’s top gynaecologists, Dr Dena Harris, to discuss her condition.
Dr Dena said: “A lot of women do not even know they have this condition and find out when they’re pregnant — It’s possible it won’t even bother Cassandra in a sexual way.
“There’s a possibility there will be some issues with getting pregnant for Cassy — but if there’s a problem it can be dealt with but we would hope she will be fine.
“I don’t think she will be more susceptible to feminine cancer based on her anomalies and I don’t think that there’s any correlation between Cassandra’s acne and her vaginal abnormality — but I can’t be sure on that.
“Women develop two vagina's when the embryo is developing — it separates into different parts and fuses — if they don’t fuse all the way you can get two uterus and two vagina's.
“It’s very rare but Cassandra can live a normal life and if there are any problems we could work to fix them.”
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