'I was told I shouldn't be a mum because I'm blind'

18 April 2025

Jen Troth says medical professionals have told her she shouldn't have children due to her sight loss condition

Jen Troth A woman with tied-back brown hair wearing a cream jumper and blazer and brown cross-body bag and smiling at the camera. behind her is a grassy field and the sea. — Jen Troth says medical professionals have told her she shouldn't have children due to her sight loss condition

Jen Troth has always wanted to be a mum, but a medical professional telling her she should not have children because of her sight loss has made the prospect "terrifying".

The 29-year-old social media influencer, who lives in Cardiff, has the hereditary condition retinitis pigmentosa and only has about 10% of her sight left.

She said there needed to be better awareness that disabled people "exist in public life".

Meanwhile, other women with sight loss have said their children had become "confident and caring" people as a result of their experiences.

The Welsh government said it provided funding "to help people with sight loss live confidently and safely".

Ms Troth said she experienced "generational trauma" due to her father and grandmother having the same condition.

Her dad Peter, 74, "was basically told he was unemployable" as a mechanic when he began to lose his sight, forcing him to move to Dubai to start his own business.

"Because of this, I was raised not to talk about my blindness and I didn't tell anyone until I was 24," she said.

"I was afraid to tell employers, to tell friends."

She said safety considerations faced by many women were heightened by sight loss, particularly regarding relationships.

Ms Troth added: "You just have to trust that people in your life are going to be good people when, in a lot of cases, they're probably not.

"I had a previous partner lock me in a room once, to try and 'scare the blindness out of me' and prove I wasn't blind."

Ms Troth inherited retinitis pigmentosa from her father, Peter, who faced many barriers when he began to lose his sight

Jen Troth A man with short grey hair wearing a black t shirt and shorts and sunglasses, sat on a sandy beach. Beside him is a golden coloured dog and a woman with long dark hair and sunglasses wearing brown and white striped shorts and a blue vest top. — Ms Troth inherited retinitis pigmentosa from her father, Peter, who faced many barriers when he began to lose his sight

She said these issues extended to medical professionals and she was "consistently" told by an eye care consultant that she "should not have children".

"I have always wanted to be a mum. I'm very family orientated," she said, adding she was now "less afraid of going totally blind than being a mother".

She said she worried about coping as a mother, particularly as her partner, who was an engineer, often worked away.

"It's honestly terrifying," Ms Troth said.

"I've not got any peripheral vision - how am I going to see a child running around? How am I going to be allowed to look after a baby by myself? How do I access ?

"You're also constantly thinking 'if I don't have a child soon, will I ever get to see what my child would look like":[]}