'I was born without a womb - now I'm on my IVF journey'

When Betty Mukherjee was 16 doctors told her she had been born without a womb. More than 12 years later, she is undergoing IVF treatment to try and have a child after speaking about her condition while a contestant on the BBC's Race Across the World.

"It was a really tough time, being a teenager is hard enough," the 28-year-old says of her diagnosis.

"I didn't start my period, so I started to develop that inner monologue of something's not quite right."

After scans and tests, Betty, from Gargrave in North Yorkshire, was diagnosed with Mayer Rokitansky Küster Hauser syndrome (MRKH), which affects one in 5,000 women.

It resulted in her being born without a uterus and with only one kidney, but she had still gone through puberty and the associated hormonal changes.

"When I got that diagnosis, there was a sense of relief that I'd finally got those answers that I'd been wanting, but then it was a really scary time thinking of what the future holds," Betty explains.

"There is definitely this narrative of young girls growing up with that maternal instinct, starting a family, and at 16 I was questioning all of that.

"I suppose for the next 10 years, I dipped in and out of quite dark times and then being OK with it and then fluctuating between that."

Her MRKH diagnosis was something Betty hid about herself, fearing she would be viewed as "different".

"Is it going to affect my relationships with boys and men? Is it going to affect my relationship with my friends?

"I felt completely vulnerable at a time when your brain's doing a lot of developing, your social skills are doing a lot of developing, and I had all of that going on inside my head."

A turning point for Betty was when she took part in the fourth series of Race Across the World with her brother James in 2024.

In an emotional moment on screen, she opened up about her MRKH diagnosis publicly and confided in James about its impact on her.

"When I was diagnosed, I googled MRKH and it was just full of quite ancient diagrams and medical jargon.

"I thought if there was a 16-year-old getting diagnosed today and they googled MRKH and I come up and I'm more of an advocate, and speaking freely about it, then it makes it seem a less daunting diagnosis.

"It had a better response than I could have ever imagined because I think I'd worked it up so negatively inside my head, it just completely changed my outlook and my life going forward."

Now living in Silsden, near Bradford, Betty has started her IVF journey with her partner Dan.

"From the get go, he's always known and it's never ever been a big issue.

"In the last six months we've been exploring embryo freezing to be able to go forward for the womb transplant programme.

"To be able to be eligible, you need at least five healthy, genetically tested embryos."

Last year, a baby girl became the first baby in the UK to be born to a mother with a transplanted womb.

After a round in September and February, the couple managed to retrieve six embryos and hope to take part in the same programme.

"Hope is such a beautiful thing and there is so much hope now for the future in terms of medical science and the advances with that and the different options.

"I think it's so important to advocate for yourself in appointments and figure out what your options are later on in life, even if you're not ready for that."

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.