KAYLEE MOATS: I’m still trying to accept
myself, accept what I have and not
dwell on it.
KAYLEE MOATS: I was about 18 when I discovered
I had MRKH, when I didn’t get my period but my 12-year-old sister did. We decided
to go to the gynaecologist where they did an ultrasound and discovered I didn’t have
a uterus or a cervix and vaginal opening and that I wouldn’t be able to carry my own
children.
LAURA MOATS: That was disbelief. It was a feeling of ‘Why? What happened? Why doesn’t
she have a uterus?’
KAYLEE MOATS: Seeing how my mom reacted, it made me sad that I wasn’t able to provide
grandchildren for her; one day.
BRENT MOATS: Even though we didn’t have any control over it; you just feel just awful,
helpless, that you can’t do anything to bring it back to fix her condition. It’s
just, it’s really hard as a parent.
KAYLEE MOATS: It makes me feel less of a woman because I can’t do what women are supposed
to do. They’re supposed to be able to carry children and create a family, and have an
intimate relationship and I can’t provide that. The next step now is to have reconstructive
surgery to create a vaginal opening so that I’ll be able to have an intimate relationship
with my future husband or boyfriend.
KAYLEE MOATS: They consider it a cosmetic
surgery or a gender re-assignment which it’s not. It’s very hurtful. The fact that I’ve
to pay 15,000 for the surgery, right out of college when I already owe a bunch of student
loans is very hard on our family and hard on me.
LAURA MOATS: Because insurance companies will
cover things like vasectomies for men or they will cover a portion of them to go on their
viagra pills, yet they won’t cover something like this that is so necessary to, in a relationship.
LAURA MOATS: It’s heart breaking and frustrating.
DR. DERYL LAMB: Besides an all female anatomy
we have fallopian tubes, ovaries and the uterine, uterus and cervix. Kaylee’s, Kaylee does
not have any of this; no ovaries, no uterus and no cervix.
DR. DERYL LAMB: Nobody knows exactly why some people have that and others don’t.
DR. DERYL LAMB: So, insurance does not consider
this as, as something that would save her life, basically.
KAYLEE MOATS: When Robbie and I first started dating,
really all I could think about most of the time was when I was going to tell him,
how he will react and if he will still want to be with me or how I was going to tell him.
ROBERT LIMMER: When she told me, I already
have grown to love this person. So, it’s not going to make me love you any less and
I’ll be there every step of the way for you, so, it didn’t really change my feelings
about her, anyway.
KAYLEE MOATS: The impact this condition has on my sex life is that, it’s not existent
because I don’t have a vagina opening. Again, Robbie is very supportive of that and doesn’t
focus on that part of our relationship as much, because, I’m not able to partake in that.
KAYLEE MOATS: In the future when I am planning to start a family, I have my sister Amanda
and a couple of my friends that have offered to be surrogates for me.
AMANDA MOATS: I want to support her in any way possible
and if that’s something that she decides that she wants; I’m more than
happy to do it for her.
ROBERT LIMMER: In order to help fund her surgery, I’ve been wanting to donate a portion of
my pay check, every time.
KAYLEE MOATS: Knowing that he accepts me for who I am and doesn’t see me as less of
a person or less of a woman makes me feel loved.
ROBERT LIMMER: I’m amazed that she hasn’t
let this define her. She is one of the nicest people that I know, one of the most caring
people that I’ve ever met.
ROBERT LIMMER: She inspires me every day to be more like that.
KAYLEE MOATS: In the future, I hope to have my own family
and have a child of my own DNA. But if that doesn’t work, because sometimes
surrogacy doesn’t always work, then I hope to adopt and not have MRKH define me.