A young woman who was born without a crucial part of her digestive system and urinary tract has detailed the medical ordeal that affected her young life.
The model Anja Christoffersen, now 25 years old, suffers from a congenital disease that causes the urinary, genital, and digestive tracts converge, leaving her with a single opening in the pelvis where there should be three.
The disfigurement called cloaca affects one in 50,000 girls, and means women like Anja are born with two vaginal canals, as well as two uteruses, despite the unique opening.
In a series of TikTok clips, the young woman describes the devastating toll the condition has taken on her body; including 25 operations and lifelong problems with incontinence, urinary tract infections and pneumonia.
The 25-year-old Australian model was born without an anus and without two vaginal canals and a uterus.
She has detailed her condition on TikTok.
“I grew up believing that I could do anything I set my mind to, despite my congenital condition,” he said in his videoand added that her grandmother and mother told her that the disease did not define her at a young age.
“It doesn’t have to impact your quality of life and the dreams you can achieve.”
Ms. Christoffersen is now a model and walks the runways at Amsterdam Fashion Week. She also advocates for others suffering from the congenital disease.
When a fetus develops, the single channel of the genital, digestive and urinary tracts separates.
But in sewer cases, this separation process does not occur, resulting in a single opening for the passage of waste.
Her first surgery was performed almost immediately after birth and doctors performed a colostomy and vesicostomy to create openings in the abdominal wall to allow stool and urine to pass through.
At seven months old, doctors operated on his pelvis, creating a cut up his spine to separate the three tracts and create the standard three holes.
Since then, he has undergone about 24 additional surgeries, including those to reconstruct his pelvis and treat abdominal problems, among others.
And urinary and intestinal incontinence is a constant struggle, since you do not have natural muscles in your rectum or anus.
Christoffersen was also born with an underdeveloped esophagus, which meant food couldn’t reach his stomach. An abnormal connection between the trachea and esophagus allowed food to enter the airways. All of this was fixed at birth.
She saying: ‘When I was younger, I was in and out of the hospital with urinary and chest infections, chronic constipation because I don’t have natural intestinal contractions, more medical imaging, treatments and surgeries.
At seven months old, doctors operated on his pelvis, creating a cut from the front to the spine, creating the standard three holes.
Since then she has undergone 24 surgeries.
‘At one year old, I started doing daily rectal washes (enemas) to induce intestinal contractions and give me social continence. Otherwise, my gut was like a faucet that would constantly turn on and flow or turn off completely and get blocked. Even with these failures I would still have accidents in everyday life.
She also faces chronic pain and other ongoing problems related to her intestines, reproductive and urinary systems.
Doctors don’t know for sure what causes cloacal abnormality, but it is thought to occur randomly.
Cloacal abnormalities can cause incontinence and predisposition to urinary tract infections.
They can also cause constipation, intestinal obstruction, and spinal abnormalities. Cloacal abnormalities can also cause urine to back up into the kidneys, causing damage.
It can be detected by ultrasound during pregnancy, as was the case for Ms. Christoffersen, but most often it is diagnosed when the baby is born.
She said: ‘I was lucky to be diagnosed early, so the doctors could prepare for my arrival. They weren’t sure how serious my condition was, but they were able to put together a good team to prepare me for my birth.’
The condition has been compared to having the pelvis of a doll by Allison Wadsworth, whose eight-year-old daughter was also born without an anus or vagina.
Mrs Wadsworth said: “She was like a doll.” She had a little girl’s line and then nothing. Simply pure and soft skin.
