Girl Born Without A Vagina? UK Teen, Jacqui Beck, Suffers From Rare Genetic Syndrome MRHK
Appearing completely normal on the outside, Jacqui Beck, 19, never expected to be told that she wouldn't be able to carry a child, much less never be able to have sex.
"I left the doctor's [office] in tears. I would never know what it was like to give birth, be pregnant, have a period. All the things I had imagined doing suddenly got erased from my future," Beck told the Daily Mail. "I was really angry and felt like I wasn’t a real woman anymore."
Her condition is called, Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH), a genetic condition that caused the teen to be born without a vagina, uterus, cervix, or fallopian tubes. Approximately one out of every 4,500 newborn girls are born with the condition, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The U.K. teen is unable to have sex and has never had her period. Beck described hearing this news as “shocking.”
“‘I was sure the doctor had got it wrong, but when she explained that was why I wasn’t having periods, it all started to make sense,” said Beck.
Beck, however, decided to take charge of her syndrome and undergo treatment. She started vaginal dilatation which involves sretching the muscles in the vaginal canal with different-sized cyclindrical dilators. If the treatment works, she won’t have to undergo surgery, and can eventually have a normal sex life.
Beck is not the first woman to go public with her syndrome. Last year, Miss Michigan 2013 publicly announced that she also suffered from the disease. Jaclyn Schultz was first diagnosed when she was 16.
"That time in my life was really hard because hearing a doctor say, 'Well, we don't know why you don't have a uterus. We don't know what it's called and how to put a name on it,' it's really isolating, and it's scary and it causes anxiety," Schultz said, according to U.S. News & World Report.
While the exact cause of MRKH is unknown, some experts believe that genetics are a factor. Many times, women aren't able to detect the syndrome because of secondary sexual characteristics, such as external genitalia and ovaries, which all look and function normally. They are usually diagnosed after they notice that menstruation hasn't started. Without a uterus, they are inevitably unable to carry a child, however, having functioning eggs makes surrogacy an option.
In 2009, a study by the MAGIC foundation found that when women are first diagnosed, their reactions are similar to people who have experienced a trauma. “Depression, shock, confusion, and rejection” were some of the reactions reported in the study — reactions that Beck knew all too well.
Beck has not given up on living a normal life, and does not think that this will prevent her from falling in love.
“'I’m a hopeless romantic and I see it as a great test of someone’s character. Instead of focusing on it [by] putting off men, I actually think it will help me find, ‘the one,’” Beck said.