Born Without a Uterus

“Everybody says I’m really lucky that I don’t have a period. But I would like to try it for a month just to see what it’s about.”

She still hadn’t gotten her period by the time she was 15. A visit to her doctor right before her 16th birthday didn’t offer any answers, but when she followed up the appointment with an MRI, the results were inconceivable: She didn’t have a uterus.  

It turned out the young girl  who’s now 33 years old, had Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH), an abnormality that affects about one in 5,000 women at birth. Those with the congenital syndrome are either born without a uterus and vagina or they have underdeveloped ones (they do have working ovaries, however). She spoke with about how MRKH has affected every aspect of her life since her teen years.

Growing Up Without a Period
Not having to deal with PMS cramps andremembering to change your tampon every few hours sounds like a dream come true, right? But before her diagnosis with MRKH, Jen was jealous of her friends’ monthly bleed.

“I definitely remember being in middle school and my friends talking about having their periods—or girls in gym class saying, ‘Oh, I have cramps, I have to sit out. “When I was young and didn’t know what was going on, I lied about it for a while. Now, everybody says I’m really lucky that I don’t have a period. But I would like to try it for a month just to see what it’s about.”

“I once had a boyfriend who broke up with me when I told him” , “He tried to be cool with it, but the next day he was like, ‘This is not going to work out for me.’ This definitely affected me. I became a little bit standoffish to men. When I met my husband, I really liked him—so I told him right away, and he didn’t care.”

She met her husband when she was 20 years old, and they’ve been married for more than five years. While her MRKH has never been an issue for the couple (in fact, she told her husband two weeks after they started dating), that hasn’t been the case with every guy.

Some women with MRKH are born without vaginas and others, have shortened ones. In the case of having a shortened vagina, women can use plastic dilators to stretch and expand it over time. “I haven’t used them since I met my husband, she said “Sex is a little uncomfortable sometimes, but it’s not painful.”

Having Kids
While women with MRKH won’t ever experience a period and can’t carry a pregnancy, they can fertilize their eggs through IVF and use a surrogate.

Please what ever you are going through, be strong, pray, and try as much as you can to be happy as you not alone, when you hear what people are going through on a daily basis, you will be amazed.