A woman battling a rare condition that made sex a no-go is over the moon as she’s expecting her “miracle” baby after getting pregnant naturally at 41.
Saffron Mullen faced a tough time trying to have intercourse due to an unusual anatomical issue causing a blockage in her vagina, which even surgery at 23 couldn’t fix, leaving her with severe scar tissue and making intimacy a distant dream. She had to hold out for years until sexual therapy came along that could sort it out.
On top of that, she was dealing with crippling fatigue and immune issues, symptoms that turned out to be from undiagnosed endometriosis. She also had to contend with achalasia, a neurological condition messing with her oesophagus, making eating and swallowing a right pain.
Through the years, Saffron battled these health woes, which battered her mental and physical wellbeing, strained relationships, and threw a spanner in her career works, reports Glasgow Live.
Saffron, from Glasgow, took on a new approach, tweaking her diet, mindset, and lifestyle, all with the hope of one day becoming a mum if Mr. Right came along.
Come June 2023, she went under the knife to get rid of lesions from her endometriosis, and by April 2023, she had another op to tackle the achalasia symptoms.
Around the same time, she met her current partner, who prefers to stay out of the limelight, and they decided to give baby-making a shot despite medics warning her that at 40, it wouldn’t be easy.
Saffron, a wellness coach, has shared her incredible journey to motherhood, revealing that she “just knew” she would be alright and opted against IVF, choosing to try for a baby naturally. Just four months later, at the age of 41, she was pregnant with her “miracle” son who is expected in mid-October.
Opening up about her past struggles, Saffron said: “I couldn’t have sex at all until I was 29. But at that time I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome after years of debilitating fatigue and illness.”
She continued, explaining the medical challenges she faced: “It was later discovered that the syndrome was a side-effect of extensive endometriosis.”
Despite the odds, Saffron’s reproductive health remained intact: “Luckily the endometriosis hadn’t affected my ovaries but I was so ill because of the achalasia that I couldn’t even think about family planning.”
Detailing her path to recovery and her decision to start a family, she added: “I had my endometriosis surgery then my achalasia surgery in summer of 2023, around the time I met my partner and we decided to start a family.”
Against medical advice, Saffron followed her instincts: “Doctors suggested I do IVF or freeze my eggs because of my age – but something told me I needed to follow what nature intended.”
Her belief in natural conception paid off: “I conceived naturally days before turning 41 – I feel like I manifested it because I believed strongly and I was determined to prove the statistics wrong.”
Saffron also disclosed the specific anatomical issue that made intercourse impossible for her, which involved a partial blockage in the vaginal canal that wouldn’t resolve without intervention.
Saffron opened up about her tragic family history and ongoing health battles, explaining that her great-great-aunt, Sarah, died at just 14 in the 1930s from toxic shock syndrome because she couldn’t bleed freely during her period.
Despite what should have been a corrective surgery, Saffron found herself unable to have sex due to scar tissuea complication worsened by poor aftercare.
She candidly shared, “There’s only so much understanding a person can have, and I was dealing with health problems as well as sexual ones. Previous partners found it too much – it made me feel like I had nothing to offer.”
Following years of suffering and misdiagnosis, she turned to pelvic floor therapy at 29, which helped her regain a normal sex life. However, her journey was complicated further by undiagnosed endometriosis, which she misinterpreted as IBS and chronic fatigue until her diagnosis in 2019.
Saffron felt her predicament was almost laughable, and said: “It was just one thing after the other – it was like a comedy script.” She had lived with the condition for years and had been misdiagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, with doctors overlooking the link between her extreme fatigue and endometriosis.
In a remarkable health turnaround, a woman has overhauled her entire lifestyle to combat the symptoms she was facing. Her journey included adopting a plant-based diet to lessen digestive inflammation and eliminating chemicals from her life by using only natural deodorant, skincare, and organic products.
To boost her mental health, she embraced activities like meditation, reading self-help books, and enjoying nature walks with her dogs. She received a diagnosis of achalasia, a rare disorder affecting the oesophagus, in early 2023.
Following surgeries in April and June 2023, she found love with her current partner, and they decided to start trying for a child. After enduring years of hardship, surgery, and therapy, she now enjoys a normal and healthy sex life.
Saffron shared: “Doctors said because of my age, I should think about freezing my eggs for going through IVF. I knew the biology wasn’t in my favour but I thought if I’m doing everything to keep my reproductive system healthy, it might happen. I didn’t want to hear about the chances of miscarriage – we just put it in the hands of the universe.”
“In February I found out I was pregnant, and I found out at the gender scan we’re having a boy. I’m proof just because someone is older it doesn’t mean they’ll have problems naturally conceiving. I’m confident if I hadn’t kept a strong mindset this wouldn’t have happened. I’m sharing my story to raise awareness of long diagnosis journeys and how medical professionals can understand this better.
“As well as the assumptions made about women and their biological clock and how we can try to manage our lives better around chronic conditions.”
