A woman underwent pioneering surgery to have her vagina rebuilt using her bowel in a desperate attempt to be a mother.
Tara Gratton, 37, of Stakeford, Northumberland, suffers from Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKS), which caused her to have an 'underdeveloped' vagina and ovaries, despite her genitals appearing normal from the outside.
Diagnosed at just 14, Ms Gratton was told she had the most severe form of the condition, leaving her with no vaginal tunnel, womb, cervix or fallopian tubes, and just one kidney.
While she was still a teen, the support worker went under the knife to have a vaginal canal built using her bowel.
Ms Gratton - who is in a relationship with Stuart Pretswell, 34 - is on the waiting list for a womb transplant, with the couple hoping to start a family using her own eggs.
Doctors were baffled as to what was causing Ms Gratton's persistent kidney infections, which she has suffered with since she was just three.
'My parents had originally taken me to the doctors when I was three, as I kept having kidney infections and nothing seemed able to stop them,' she said.
'I spent a long time in Newcastle Children's Hospital and with antibiotics, it was eventually managed quite well.'
It was not until the then-teenager underwent further tests that medics discovered she had MRKS.
'It took them a long time to discover what was actually causing all my problems, and doctors even said, it was the first time they'd ever seen a girl like me,' Ms Gratton said.
Ms Gratton then made the difficult decision to have a vaginal canal built at just 14 years old to enable her to have sex in the future.
'I had a vaginal tunnel built from my bowel as only part of my vagina had formed properly,' she said.
'My surgery was a risky one as it involved using two inches of my bowel to create a new tunnel opening.
'I was really young but naturally I was embarrassed about my condition back then as it was so rare.'
After going under the knife, Ms Gratton was forced to endure dilation therapy. This involves inserting a cylinder-shaped medical device into the vagina to expand its size and make its tissue more elastic.
Ms Gratton always wanted to have a child of her own but was told by doctors she did not have any ovaries.
However, as she grew older, medics discovered they were wrong.
'I did have ovaries which meant it was possible for me to have children - but I would have to go through IVF and alternative
