14 DAY TRIAL // One 19-year-old girl from the Isle of Wight, Jacqui Beck, is facing her worst fears by going public on Facebook with her biggest secret, in the hope that it would give other women in her position some comfort in knowing they’re not alone: at 17, she was diagnosed with MRKH, which means she has no reproductive organs.
MRKH is a disorder also known as the Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome characterized, according to Genetics Home Reference, by the absence or the underdevelopment of the vagina and uterus. It can only be diagnosed in teens, when the lack of menstruation is a sign because, on the outside, everything seems in proper order.
Jacqui too found out that she had the disorder, which affects 1 in every 5,000 newborn girls, when she went to the doctor with back issues and casually mentioned she hadn’t had her period yet. Further tests revealed that she had, in fact, MRKH and would never be able to have children.
For a very long time, she felt shame about her diagnosis and would not even consider letting the boys she dated know about it. Because of MRKH, she can’t have relations – or couldn’t, better yet, because she’s now undergoing treatment and might not need surgery in the future.
The treatment consists in the use of dilatators of various sizes which, in time, will probably allow her to be intimate with a man.
Now, after telling her family and friends about her diagnosis, Jacqui is going public on Facebook because, she tells the Daily Mail, other girls in her situation need to know they’re not alone. They also need to know that they’re not “freaks” and that their condition can be improved.
“I realized it’s not something I should be ashamed of. If I had cancer, or, any other medical issue, people would be supportive. So, I recently came out to everyone on Facebook, telling them about my condition,” she says.
“I was surprised at how positive everyone was, they said I was brave and beautiful, now I wish I had been open about it from the beginning,” she adds.
Jacqui even considers herself “lucky” because, unlike women who find out they can’t conceive whilst trying to get pregnant, she has time to get used to the idea she will never be able to carry a pregnancy to term.