A SEARCH FOR SELF- ACCEPTANCE

Ally Hensley talks openly about her experience with MRKH and how she’s learnt what it means to be different, and why she’s now creating awareness, advocacy and peer support

- SARAH RODI

“When I was 16, like any other girl, I was expecting some changes in my body to start taking place, especially in my first period. It’s a rite of passage into womanhood after all. But my period never came,” says Ally Hensley, who grew up in Pangbourne, Berkshire.

“I went to see my GP and they told me to go away for a year, and to wait and see what happens. But when I returned, I was given an internal exam and the doctor immediately knew something was wrong. I was referred to the Royal Berkshire Hospital for an ultrasound and a laparoscopy, where they used a camera to examine inside my abdomen. When I came round I thought I’d be fixed. But that was not to be. The surgeon pulled the curtain around my bed and drew a diagram of what my reproductive tract looked like...”

That day, Ally was diagnosed with MRKH (Mayer–Rokitansky– Küster–Hauser syndrome), the under-development or absence of the reproductive tract, which affects one in 5,000 women. There is no clear reason why it occurs.

“The surgeon was explaining that externally your body forms normally, but inside, it doesn’t. All I heard was white noise. It was so overwhelming and unexpected. I couldn’t comprehend it,” says Ally. “There I was, in the middle of studying for my A-Levels, already struggling with my teenage years, and then suddenly I was being referred to London for vaginal lengthening. I was basically a child, learning I couldn’t have a child. It interrupted the formation of my self-esteem, my femininity, and my identity. My parents didn’t know what to say, and having your family focussed on something so intimate was embarrassing and terrifying in equal measure.”