Yaa's Story

[Received Aug 2006]

It has taken me 32 years to find out what this is. No one back home ever told me the truth. I guess like others, I can't tell whether they knew what they were dealing with or they were just refusing to tell me the truth.

For me I got alarmed when I was about 16 years and was not mensturating. At 17 I started seeing a doctor to find out why and frankly I think he was just useless. I did a few ultra sound scans and hormone tests but they never explained to me what it all meant. The doctor was too happy to brush it aside. Frankly I was happy not to deal with it anyway because for all the problems that my peers were going through dealing with menstruation, I was too happy not to deal with it. At 25 I tried investigating it in London in a major hospital. They did not have a clue and I ended up being an experiment for quite a while. I left it and refused to deal with it. Luckly for me I have a well formed vagina so, so long as sex was good and I was not ready to have kids, there was no need to bother.

At 29 I had a laparoscopy and it determined that I did not have uterus. However there was something else which they believed was an ovary. However they did not investigate further if it really was an ovary. By this time I was quite happy to know that I had an ovary and my sister was willing to surrogate for me when the issue came up. I came to Atlanta [USA] three months ago to start a fertility treatment 'knowing' that I had an ovary. It was a huge shock for me to find out that, not only did I not have an ovary, but I had 46XY karyotype, with testicles and looking forward to a life-long living with hormone replacement therapy and potential osteoporosis. So I did the MRI and that is where I got the good news.

My family have been real supportive. I have not told them that I am XY though. They only know I do not have a uterus and my 'ovaries' are bad. My greatest support has been my partner. Truthfully, it was painful thinking about it and having to deal with it. It was his idea to come to America to sort this out once and for all. I owe him everything. He has been with me every step of the way and has given me so much confidence in myself to deal with it. He reminds me everyday that I am the most beautiful woman on earth. My mother doesn't want to know much. She keeps telling me to have faith and not even to speak about it. It is supposed to be a secret.

I am still trying to learn more and more. Thankfully the internet provides every information I need to understand it. My doctors are so amazed at my situation. For all the years they have been doing this, they have never come across my case. I guess I am a lucky girl.