When she was 18, Arizona woman Kaylee Moats visited a gynaecologist to follow up on why she was yet to start her period.
“When I didn’t get my period but my 12-year-old sister did, we decided to go to the gynecologist, where they did an ultrasound and discovered I didn’t have a uterus, or cervix, or vaginal opening, and I wouldn’t be able to carry my own children,” Kaylee, now 22, told Barcroft TV.
Kaylee was diagnosed with Mayer Rokitansky Küster Hauser syndrome (MRKH), which affects about 1 in every 5,000 female babies.
“I was scared for the future because I didn’t know what’s coming up next and how I would be able to have my own family one day,” she said.
Kaylee explained that her condition made her feel “less of a woman” and that a sexual relationship with her boyfriend, Robbie, has been forgone.
“I met Robbie in my senior year of college when I was working at the front desk. He thought I was cute so he came up to me and we started talking,” she told the Daily Mail.
“It took about a month for me to tell him that I have MRKH. He was confused at first but supportive and said that it doesn’t change how he sees me.”
Sister, Elizabeth, launched a GoFundMe page to pay for surgery to “create a vaginal opening” for Kaylee.
“It would give back a part of her that has been missing since birth and dramatically improve her quality of life,” Elizabeth wrote.
As The Courier Mail reports, crowdfunding was necessary because the surgery is not covered by health insurance.
“The fact that insurance considers this a cosmetic or a gender surgery really upsets me,” Kaylee explained. “I have all the correct chromosomes of a woman so it’s not a gender or cosmetic thing because it’s not what’s outside that is different. I can’t see inside what is wrong with me.”
She added that she was looking forward to pursuing a sexual relationship.
“But I am looking forward to having a sexual relationship. I’m not sure If I want to wait until marriage but I think having that option there is a lot more comforting.”
