The Uninvited Guest
Where change comes too soon and stays for life.
10% of Britain’s population is classed as infertile. Young women make up around 1% of that figure with a particular diagnosis known at Premature Ovarian Failure. Premature Ovarian Failure or POT for short is a premature menopause that women under 40 sadly experience. Over the age of 40, a woman’s eggs start to fail and can no longer be fertilised this is a natural menopause but for women under this age it means without fertility treatment there is only a 5-10% chance of a woman conceiving alone. This can be a devastating and life-changing diagnosis, and if caught too late means a woman’s chance of having children can be crushed and left helpless. But can the diagnosis be caught too early?
In recent years, the amount of girls under the age of 18 being told they have Premature Ovarian Failure is increasing around Children’s clinics in the UK. Adolescent girls as young as 14 years old are being told they are experiencing their menopause and that their chances of them having children when they are women are zero to none. For any girl this is something that can be destructive and harmful. For both the parents and the girl her life is changed and never for the better. The discussion whether there is an age a girl is mature enough to hear and process this kind of information is ongoing, yet these girls are still being targeted. Left feeling useless and alone, they have to go through puberty knowing they are not like other girls and will never be like them. Whether this diagnosis is clinically helpful or just emotionally destructive has not been considered and is treated like its conclusive and final.
Kiah Fisher, 19 lives in little town called Abergavenny, South Wales. She was diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Failure after finding a cyst behind her womb at 18, recently being told that a mastectomy is her only option. Kiah has been through a traumatic journey after being mis-diagnosed twice and then when finally diagnosed with POT she was left to research what a menopause was for herself. For any girl reading information on the Internet is harmful, but when the subject matter usually is a 45 year old woman, the diagnosis can be unbelievably crushing.
Starting from just a check up at the Local GP to being in the Children’s Ward of the hospital being internally examined, the question begs whether this is right to be so intrusive with a young girl. The next step being more invasive tests and scans, with Transvaginal Ultra-scans becoming an uncomfortable norm. These awful examinations having to be performed in the section of the hospital full of blissful women who are heavily pregnant, The Labour Ward. The final visit to the Gynaecologist will then reveal the blunt diagnosis of Premature Ovarian Failure.
For a woman being told its too late must be unbearable, but for a child to be told that its too late must be unimaginably painful. Premature Ovarian Failure, known as The Uninvited Guest. Where change comes too soon and stays for life.
Words and Images by Annabel May Oakley-Watson ©