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| 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."
