Woman born without uterus breaks down as she raises £20,000 for transplant after spending nearly £50,000 on IVF, surrogate and miscarriage: ‘We don’t want to stop fighting yet’

Born without a uterus, Molly Eagles is raising £20,000 to keep her dream of becoming a mother alive after years of IVF, surrogacy and a heartbreaking miscarriage.

A woman born without a uterus has broken down in tears while sharing her emotional fertility journey as she and her fiance raise £20,000 to create embryos that could give her a chance of carrying her own biological child through a uterus transplant.Molly Eagles, 28, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, a rare congenital condition in which the uterus is absent or underdeveloped. Fortunately, Molly was born with functioning ovaries, meaning she can produce her own eggs.After years of fertility treatment, IVF, two embryo transfers, a surrogate pregnancy and a devastating miscarriage, Molly and her fiance Matt Crowe are now hoping to explore a uterus transplant.The couple have already spent almost £50,000 on their journey and are now asking for help to create more embryos and have them genetically screened, a requirement for them to potentially be considered for a transplant.

‘I just want to be as raw and as honest as possible’

In an emotional video shared as part of their fundraising campaign, Molly said she wanted to be completely honest about what the couple had been through.“I just want to be as raw and as honest as possible, so forgive us for the video,” she said as she began describing their journey.“I was born with MRKH and it’s when you’re born with a missing uterus and you can also be born with missing ovaries. However, I’m fortunate enough to have been born with ovaries.”Molly and Matt have undergone egg collections and IVF and were previously matched with a surrogate. They had two embryo transfers.“The first transfer didn’t stick and the second transfer we did fall pregnant,” Molly explained.“However, unfortunately we did miscarry.”Following the miscarriage, the couple took time away from fertility treatment to “recuperate and recharge”.But then they discovered that uterus transplants were becoming a possibility for women like Molly.“Then, we saw that a uterus transplant was starting to be a thing and it just overwhelms me with that being a possibility,” she said, becoming emotional.“That overwhelms me with joy.”Molly said she had read stories about women with MRKH who had undergone uterus transplants and subsequently carried their own babies.“I just think it’s incredible,” she said. “Like, obviously finding out that I had MRKH at the age of 15 was soul destroying.”“I always wanted to be a young mum and it just ripped my heart out, as you can imagine. So hearing that that’s a possibility is just incredible, like absolutely incredible.”

‘We don’t want to give up hope yet’

The couple are now looking at two possible routes to parenthood – surrogacy or a uterus transplant.However, before Molly can potentially be considered for a transplant, they need to create more embryos and have them undergo the required testing.The couple currently have two embryos remaining, but Molly says they are not the highest grade and have not undergone the testing required for the transplant route.“We’re going to have to, and we want to anyway, because we have only got two embryos left and they’re not the highest grade,” she said.“So the chance of pregnancy is not great basically. Still a chance, but we want to make higher graded embryos to give us the best chance and also get them all tested as well.”Creating and testing the embryos would allow the couple to keep both options open.“Once we’ve made those embryos, it’s going to give us a chance to either still stick with the surrogacy route or go down the uterus transplant route,” Molly explained.There is also a limited number of places available for uterus transplant procedures, meaning being eligible does not necessarily guarantee that Molly will receive one.

‘Every penny has literally gone towards the baby situation’

The financial burden of their journey has been enormous.Molly and Matt say they have spent close to £50,000 themselves, with help from their families along the way.“Within our journey, we have spent nearly close to £50,000 ourselves,” Molly said.“We have had help from our family but we have done a lot of it ourselves and we’re kind of at a point now where we want to go again but we’re wanting to ask for help.”The couple have launched a GoFundMe campaign with a £20,000 target.Molly said they do not expect everyone to donate and that simply sharing their story would mean a great deal to them.“Every penny has literally gone towards the baby situation,” she said.The costs have included IVF, medication, consultations, blood tests, embryo freezing and expenses connected with surrogacy.“Every step of the way there is an expense,” she explained.“With surrogacy obviously there’s a lot of expense. You have to pay for the IVF of creating embryos, you’ve got to pay for the drugs, the medications that you’ve got to take beforehand, consultation meetings, blood tests, embryos to be frozen, the surrogate’s medication, the surrogate expenses.”“It’s a lot of money but we really just don’t want to give up hope yet of having our own biological child.”

‘We have had our lives on hold’

Molly admitted that the miscarriage took away a significant amount of the couple’s hope and determination.“After the miscarriage it sort of takes a big chunk out of your hope and your determination,” she said.“Because it’s not, like you say, as easy to just keep going and keep going and keep going.”She revealed that the couple have felt guilty about trying to live a normal life while pursuing their dream of becoming parents.“We have had our lives on hold,” Molly said.“We feel guilty to be going on date nights or booking a holiday because we know it’s making us further away from being able to create and have another chance.”The emotional and financial strain has meant the couple feel they have not lived a normal life for years.“We just don’t want to stop fighting yet, do we?” Molly asked Matt during the video.“No,” he replied.

‘We’d live with regret if we didn’t try’

Molly said the decision to launch a fundraiser was not easy.The couple had been encouraged by people around them to set up a GoFundMe for years, but they had always felt uncomfortable about asking others for money.“People have been telling us to do a GoFundMe for years because it spreads awareness as well,” she said.“The idea of it has made us feel uncomfortable. But we’re at that stage now where I think we’d live with regret if we didn’t try.”Breaking down, Molly added, “I’m sorry that I’m so emotional. I just think I never want to live with regret and this is something that I think we’d regret if we didn’t do.”For the couple, the fundraiser is therefore about more than money. It is also about keeping open a possibility they once never thought they would have.

Uterus transplant could open a new door

Molly says the transplant route has given her renewed hope after years of believing that carrying her own child would never be possible.“The actual operation is funded,” she explained. “However, obviously they want us to have five tested embryos and obviously we need to create more embryos.”The embryo testing alone can cost thousands of pounds per embryo.If Molly is accepted onto the transplant list, the couple will also face additional costs associated with travelling to the transplant centre and staying nearby for monitoring after surgery.For now, their immediate priority is creating and testing enough embryos to potentially qualify.“We want to get to that next step and get those embryos made to hopefully open up a few more doors for us,” Molly said.“And yeah, I mean, you never know who could this reach – someone who can help.”

‘We just really don’t want to stop fighting’

Molly hopes that sharing her story will also help raise awareness of MRKH, a condition she says very few people understand.She said that almost everyone she has spoken to about the condition had never heard of it.The couple are asking people not only to donate but to share and repost their story.“We don’t expect people to donate but even just people sharing our story and reposting our story and just creating awareness of MRKH,” Molly said.She also hopes that women living with the condition will feel less alone.“I just want to say thank you for taking the time to watch and listen really,” she said.“We want to do is how to be more appreciative than you’d know and just like even sharing it and reposting it, we’d highly appreciate it.”“We want to just take you on the journey with us if we can.”