Having gone from a size 8 to an 18 in just months, Amanda Lewis was diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency — the menopause — at age 13 and told she could never have children
AMANDA Lewis piled on weight, cried daily and her periods had stopped – all signs of the menopause, but she was just 11 years old.
Having gone from a size 8 to an 18 in just months, Amanda was diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency — the menopause — at age 13 and told she could never have children.
But now, 17 years on, pole dance and fitness instructor Amanda is 13 weeks pregnant, thanks to an egg donor.
However, after she gives birth she will have to go through “the change”, again.
Amanda, 30, from Nuneaton, Warks, says: “From the day I was told I was going through the menopause, I grew up quickly.
“I’d started my periods when I was ten but I hadn’t had any since I was 11.
“I’d gone up five dress sizes — going from confident and bubbly to overweight and depressed.
“When I was diagnosed at 13, the doctor said, ‘When you want to have a family you won’t be able to’. They sent me leaflets about the menopause, with old ladies all over the front.
“It was heartbreaking. I felt quite bleak about the future. I tried to put on a front but about once a year I would break down and cry.”
In her twenties, a biopsy of her ovaries and a laparoscopy — where a camera is inserted through the abdomen — confirmed that her only hope of getting pregnant was using a donor egg.
“I made my peace with it,” she recalls.
She was advised to go on Hormone Replacement Therapy to boost oestrogen to help keep her womb healthy should she ever want to carry a baby.
Then, in 2016, Amanda met software developer Tom Hill, 27, and last summer they decided to try for a baby.
Because the NHS waiting list was so long, they opted for private IVF, using savings and credit cards to fund the £10,000 cost of treatment at Care Fertility in Northampton.
Amanda says: “They asked what donor characteristics we wanted. A mixed-race donor had left some eggs on freeze.
“She was the same height, had the same hair and eye colour and, from a letter she wrote, I could tell she had a similar personality to me. She sounded lovely. We chose her.
“Once my uterus was the right size, after upping my HRT levels, the eggs were fertilised with Tom’s sperm and incubated and I was given progesterone and oestrogen.”
Six days from the day an embryo was transferred to the womb, Amanda was pregnant. She says: “From our first appointment to a positive pregnancy test was just three months.
“It’s been a rollercoaster and I’ve kept videos of our journey on my YouTube channel Amanda Dawn.
“I’ve stopped taking hormones now so once the baby is born I’ll go back through the menopause.”
The baby is due in August and Amanda and Tom will find out its gender in a couple of weeks.
When he or she is older they will explain about egg donation.
Amanda says: “The experts recommend telling the baby that he or she is donor conceived.
“There are story books you can use to start telling the baby from age two.
“Our baby will also be able to request details about the donor, and an agency is being set up so donor-conceived children can find their biological parents and siblings.
“We have three top-grade embryos left in the freezer so our child can hopefully have a sibling.
“We’re never going to push the children in either way but I hope they want to find the donor as I’d like to meet her. It’s amazing what she’s done.
“The fact I can be pregnant and get the bond with our baby in that way is a miracle in itself.”
One in 10,000 women under 20 experience premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). It affects 110,000 Brits aged 12 and 40.
Just like menopause, POI is when the ovaries stop producing eggs, oestrogen and progesterone. The ovaries do not completely fail in all cases of POI and periods, ovulation and pregnancy can occur.
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