Dr. Amy Lossie

Eggs, les oeufs, los huevos, le uova, Kananmuna, Eire, jajka. On September 25, 2014, I had a Bilateral Salpingo-Oophorectomy & Hysterectomy. My functional ovaries and non-functional, severely underdeveloped uterus that defined so much of my #MRKH life, abruptly exited my body through a 3” (7 cm) incision just above my public hair. My #LynchSyndrome diagnosis and Stage 3B colon cancer created an urgency to remove these organs, which carried a high risk of future cancer.

I turned 47 three days before I discovered my tumor and 5 weeks before my surgery. I decided years before to remain Childfree. I loved my life. I poured everything into my career, earning a PhD in Genetics and researching the earliest stages of mammalian development. Blastocysts are still some of my favorite images.

In 2012, I co-founded the Beautiful You MRKH Foundation with Christina Ruth & discovered a new passion — improving the health of people with MRKH.

I embraced this new role and defined myself through MRKH Advocacy, filling a deep hole created by this diagnosis many years ago. I owned my MRKH!

POOF! On Sept 25th, 31 years of being that person with the weird uterus suddenly vanished. I could check a box they said hysterectomy. I could check a box that countless others had done before me. I was no longer 1 in 5000. I was Childfree Amy with a hysterectomy.

I mourned that non-functional, weird, annoying MRKH uterus. I grieved for the aged eggs that were discarded with my ovaries. Even though I was happily Childfree, I mourned the finality. Biological children were no longer an option. That choice was gone.

As I reflect on Childless Week, I restate that I LOVE my Childfree life. I have zero regrets about not raising children and yet I accept that it’s complicated, as roads less traveled typically are. What I appreciate about the life I chose is that I get to live by my own rules. That freedom fills me with joy every single day. I sincerely wish that each of us feels that joy, the joy of living your life by your own rules, whatever they may be.

Amy