VAGINA UNCENSORED: A Memoir of Missing Parts
What if everything you’d been told would make you a woman was suddenly taken from you?
Sixteen-year-old Ally eagerly anticipates the promises of womanhood: periods, sex, love and motherhood. But a shocking medical diagnosis shatters these dreams in an instant, setting her on an unexpected path of grief, bodily trauma and a relentless quest for love and identity.
In this heart-rending yet hopeful memoir, Ally bares her darkest moments following her diagnosis of Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKH). With raw honesty, she reveals the challenges of living as a woman born without a uterus or vagina, confronting societal expectations and her own sense of self.
Ally’s journey will inspire, break and uplift you, while posing the important question:
What really makes a woman?
Fran Bushe, author of My Broken Vagina
An important, timely and powerful book about one woman’s quest to be “normal” and how to release ourselves from the suffocating grip of
that word.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ally Hensley is an author, speaker and global ambassador for women’s health.
Ally Hensley is an author, speaker, stigma
shaker and global ambassador for women’s health and happiness. Ally has written for leading publications on mental health, infertility and body positivity, and has become a regular media contributor on her experience of being born with MRKH, a medical condition resulting in the absence of a womb and vagina.
As an international spokesperson for MRKH on how to redefine womanhood on her own terms, Ally advocates to raise support and awareness of this life-altering diagnosis. She founded Australia’s first MRKH organisation, MRKH Australia, in 2013, co-founded Global MRKH in 2016 and is a board member of the UK’s flagship charity, MRKH Connect.
Her podcast Stigma Shakers recently launched, and just two seasons in, this stigma-focused show has been featured by the BBC, among many other national publications, and has reached over 150k views. Now, Stigma Shakers is recognised as not just a taboo-tackling platform, but a social movement.
Isla Traquair, award-winning journalist and broadcaster
This is a book for all women. It covers so many key topics about our roles in society, relationships, intimacy and so much more. I read it in
one go!
With online censorship shaming the masses, are we in turn,
shadow-banning ourselves?
WHAT IS
Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome?
MRKH is a disorder of reproductive development leading to the absence of the uterus, cervix, and the shortening of the vagina.
“I will never grow out of MRKH, I will just learn to grow with it!”
There are two types of MRKH: type 1, characterised by the absence or underdevelopment of the uterus, cervix and vaginal canal; and type 2, which includes the key characteristics of type 1, which in addition, can affect kidney development, skeletal changes, hearing difficulties and even heart abnormalities. According to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust,2 it is estimated approximately 40% of women with MRKH will have type 2.
MRKH AFFECTS 1 IN 5000 WOMEN
BORN WITHOUT A UTERUS & VAGINA
UK'S MRKH CHARITY, MRKH CONNECT
Amy Molloy, journalist
and author of Wife, Interrupted
A breathtakingly honest, raw and surprisingly funny memoir about what it means for society to question your identity.
Ally defines herself as a realistic,
but scrappy dreamer – where fact is essential, and originality is to be
absolutely embraced.
Join me on Substack
“Sometimes, the only way we know it’s time to heal is because there is nothing left to break.”
Words carry weight.
Let’s be kind and gentle with how we use them.
Let’s be kind and gentle to ourselves with them.
ELLAMAE FULLALOVE - VAVA WOMB
Everyone has a vagina story, whether we have a vagina or not. The word is shrouded in stigma – hidden and censored just like our stories, untold and buried in shame. The power in this narrative untangles so many layers of society, from poor sex education to defining womanhood and unlearning our pre-defined roles. It amplifies the message that we are no less. It teaches us that there’s no one way to be a girl, or a woman, or a person – we aren’t in a contract with society