A woman who desperately tried for a baby for almost a decade was finally able to conceive when a doctor drilled holes in her ovaries.
Sharleen Bannister, now 29, spent more than eight agonising years trying desperately for a baby whenever she had the chance – even though the strain and stress caused the break-up of her marriage.
Her drive to have a kid was so great that it also led to the break-up with her second long-term partner, before medics managed to use a special drill on her insides to free-up her ovaries – and now she’s mum to bouncing two-year-old Terrell.
Sharleen said: “It was a long and hard road, with more than a few humps along the way, but now I’m the proudest full-time mum in the world.”
Ever since she was a little girl, Sharleen, of Ramsgate, Kent, has always wanted a mum, so she got married at 18 and straight away began trying for a baby.
After two years of trying almost nightly, sadly her marriage broke up, but she soon began trying again with her new partner.
Aged just 23, Sharleen was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, meaning that she had so many cysts clogging her ovaries that her chances of getting pregnant were very slim because they couldn’t produce an egg.
Sharleen never gave up on her dream, and in November 2011, consultants at Derby City Hospital suggested an unusual procedure to help her conceive – a laparoscopy, known as ovarian drilling.
The gruelling surgery would mean her ovaries were punctured by electrosurgical needles ten times to stop the cysts from growing – and incredibly, just four months later, she conceived.
Sharleen, whose relationship with her baby’s father broke down because he did not want children, is happily raising her son on her own.
The proud mum said: “I spent so many years of my life trying for a baby, it was amazing to finally hold my son in my arms.
“When doctors suggested drilling into my ovaries, it sounded like something from a horror movie.
“But I’m so glad I did it, because Terrell brings me so much joy.
“His dad has never even seen him, but it doesn’t matter.
“Being a mum is everything I’ve ever dreamed of. I feel like the luckiest woman in the world.”
