Diagnosed with TS a Year After my Wedding by Sol Ramirez-Rios

Hi, my name is Sol, and I am 37 years old. I was diagnosed with Turner syndrome (TS) at the age of 24. I met my now-husband at the age of 21 and got married 2 years later. We have been together for 16 years.

I’m from sunny San Diego, California, and I’m a pharmacy technician. Anyone else from San Diego? A year after getting married, I found out I had TS. It was heartbreaking and the scariest news I had ever received. My husband and I were wanting to have a family, and after failing to do so after a year, we decided to seek help. It was a fertility endocrinologist who decided to test me. After bloodwork came back, I received a call with the news and what it entailed - infertility, among other things.

I know now that I have heart issues and liver issues, though thankfully not anything serious. It was scary for me because I was already married and what if my husband didn’t want to be with me anymore? What if this affected our marriage? What if my diagnosis is something he didn’t understand? When I told him the news, I was surprised at how supportive and loving he was. He reassured me that nothing would change, he loved me for me. I appreciated him so much for that.

Being Mexican, it’s not unusual for women to be petite. At 4’7”, I was always told my great-grandma was tiny and my mom is 4’11”, so it wasn’t a big deal to me or my family that I was small. I grew up pretty normally, and I don’t have features of Turner syndrome other than my height. I actually had normal puberty and had my first monthly at the age of 12, however, I started to be irregular and by the age of 16, I was taking birth control to regulate myself. Now that I think of it, it helped me develop without even knowing I had TS.

My husband has a son from a previous relationship, and in my heart, it honestly put me at ease at the time because at least he knew what being a father was and that I wasn’t going to take that blessing and experience away from. His son is my pride and joy and part of the man I love. He made me a mother, though a stepmother, it doesn’t make it any different; I love him like my own.

Now, to the amazing part! After 15 years together, we were blessed to be parents, not only to our son but to our two gorgeous and amazing twin daughters. My beautiful sister donated her eggs to me and I was able to get pregnant via IVF egg donation. I will forever be grateful to my sister. Our boy is 16, and our girls are about to be 1! Our son boy is the best big brother the girls could have. He loves them so much.

IVF is an expensive and emotional journey, a roller coaster if you will. I do feel that we waited this long unconsciously because we weren’t emotionally ready. I am grateful it was now and that my husband and I are more mature, stable, and up for the emotional challenge that IVF was. We weren’t even thinking of it; we were content and had already accepted the fact that children of our own probably weren’t going to happen, but the opportunity came, and it just worked out perfectly. We are so grateful. This is my story.