An American woman with a rare genetic disease could not bear a child and was not ready to come to terms with the situation. Her twin sister, who had already given birth to two children, came to the rescue. What are you willing to do for a loved one?
36-year-old Amy Fuggiti and Courtney Essenpreis are mirror twin sisters from Chicago, USA. Twins of this type are characterized by mirror symmetry: for example, one of them has a mole on his right cheek, and the other has a mole on his left. Amy and Courtney even have playful nicknames – “Righty” and “Lefty”.
However, a rare genetic disease was transmitted to two at once. Women live with Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome, which affects the eyes, ears, and central nervous system.
There is a 50% chance that the disease will be passed on to children, so Amy and Kourtney could only get pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF). The procedure implies that experts in the laboratory check all the embryos for the presence of a disease and plant only those that do not have any disorders.
“When I say “We are pregnant”, I mean myself, my husband and sister”
Amy went through IVF four times, but failed. The embryos either did not undergo genetic testing or were not implanted in the woman’s uterus. “The doctors were amazed by my case. The uterus looked normal, the embryos underwent chromosomal testing, and no one understood why nothing came out, ”she explained. The woman even tried to get pregnant with the help of donor eggs received from her sister, and these attempts did not lead to pregnancy.
Six years later, Amy and her husband finally received a completely healthy – “golden” – embryo, but they feared that the attempt to fertilize again would be unsuccessful. At that moment, her sister intervened, who gave birth to two children, also with the help of IVF. “I didn’t even have to ask her to be a surrogate mother. It seemed like it should be, ”said Amy.
As a result, the embryo was planted in Courtney’s uterus. “When I say ‘We’re pregnant’ I mean myself, my husband and sister,” Amy shared. “We did it together.” The baby is due in October 2021.