Gujarati girl born without vagina gets a new lease of life!

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: In yet another medical breakthrough, a girl born without vagina has been given a new lease of life by doctors at Sola Civil Hospital in Gujarat, enabling her to marry and even have kids.

As per a report in the Times of India, the girl, Hetal (named changed), was born with a condition called MayerRockitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome or MRKH, a rare syndrome which affects the reproductive system, without a vagina, cervix and womb.

However, after struggling with the disorder for 20 years, Sola Civil Hospital doctors successfully carried out a vaginoplasty using Davydov procedure to create a vaginal canal. In the Davydov operation, doctors create a vagina using a patient's own peritoneal lining.

“One in 4,500 women are affected by MRKH. Hetal had both ovaries which meant that she could have children through in vitro fertilization and surrogacy. However, her sole kidney was close to her vagina and the operation could damage it,” Dr Ajesh Desai, senior gynaecologist at Sola Civil Hospital, with whom the family had consulted was quoted as saying.

Doctors said the operation was risky as Hetal only had one kidney positioned near the vagina.

After studying similar cases in foreign countries, the team performed the operation lasting for four hours for free under government's Maa scheme extended to people below poverty line, which is otherwise quite expensive in various private hospitals to carry out the procedure.

MRKH syndrome is a disorder that occurs in females, which mainly affects the reproductive system. This condition causes the vagina and uterus to be underdeveloped or absent. Women with this disorder usually do not have menstrual periods due to the absent uterus. They may also have abnormalities in other parts of the body.