Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Woman Born Without Womb Has Twins


Hayley's twins
A London woman born with no womb has undergone a near-miraculous medical process and given birth to healthy twin girls. Hayley Haynes, 28, was devastated at 19 to learn she had no Fallopian tubes, ovaries, or womb, thanks to a condition known as androgen insensitivity syndrome. "When they told me I had no womb I was so confused I felt sick," she says. "My biggest fear was never having children. Suddenly a huge piece of my life was missing." She confided in only one person that she was "genetically male": a guy named Sam who comforted her through the process. Later, Sam became her boyfriend and then her husband. "She told me no man would want her," Sam reveals; "I told her that any man worth having would."

Hayley found new hope in 2007 when a specialist discovered a tiny womb in her body that earlier scans had overlooked. So she took hormone tablets designed to right her estrogen and progesterone levels, ease her osteoporosis, and enable her womb to grow. It all worked, but only gave her the option of in vitro fertilization. Using Sam's sperm and an anonymous egg donor, the couple spent nearly $16,000 on an IVF treatment that harvested 13 eggs, only two of which were viable. Amazingly, both took. After a healthy pregnancy, she gave birth naturally two weeks early, on Christmas Eve, to non-identical twins Avery and Darcey. "It’s not just our wallets that are empty," Hayley says. "We are emotionally exhausted. But I’d do it again in a heartbeat for one cuddle with my girls."