Alberta woman who was born despite IUD suffering from rare diseases

An intrauterine device is one of most effective forms of contraception, with less than one per cent chance of getting pregnant, experts say.

From birth to adulthood, Sherri Jones’ life has been both unusual and rare.

The 54-year-old resident of Red Deer, Alb., was born despite her mom using an intrauterine device — a one-in-100 occurrence.

“The IUD apparently had gotten stuck on her bladder, and it penetrated her bladder, which is why she was able to conceive,” Jones told Global News in an interview.

The IUD, which hadn’t caused any major problems for her mom’s pregnancy, was later surgically removed several months after Jones’ birth, she said.

From the age of three or four, Jones says she has been struggling with a series of health problems, such as leg pain, a speech impediment, vision issues and slow bladder development.

As she got older, she started feeling pain in other joints of her body.

“I was constantly back and forth to the hospital, I was in an ambulance, you name it, doctors’ appointments. It was all the time.”

In 2010, a then-39-year-old Jones was in a car accident, and her body pains got worse. An MRI scan showed a large Tarlov Cyst, a very rare neurological condition, in her cervical spine. Seven years later, she developed three new Tarlov Cysts at the surgical site of the first one.