A woman who was genetically born a man, who was told she would never become a mother, has defied the odds to give birth to twin daughters.
Hayley Haynes was born without a womb, ovaries or fallopian tubes – as a result of a condition called androgen insensitivity syndrome – and was told at the age of 19 that, with XY chromosomes, she was genetically a man and would never conceive.
Naturally, the now 28-year-old was left devastated by the news, telling the Daily Mirror: “When they told me I had no womb, I was so confused I felt sick. My biggest fear was never having children.”
“Suddenly a huge piece of my life was missing. I felt like half a woman and was embarrassed. How was I going to tell a guy I was genetically male when I started dating?” she added.
However, Hayley received new hope when a specialist at Royal Derby Hospital in the UK found a tiny womb that had been missed in previous scans. Medics proceeded to prescribe her with a course of hormones in a bid to make the womb grow – and it worked.
In 2011, Hayley and her husband Sam prepared for a round of IVF and were ecstatic when their pregnancy test results came back positive.
The couple went on to welcome twin daughters, Avery and Darcey, nine years after Hayley was first told that she would never be a mother.
Describing the girls’ birth as “overwhelming”, Hayley added: “Becoming a mother was the single most amazing moment of my life.”
