For the first time in the U.S., a successful uterus transplant was completed by surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic. For the transplant in the 26-year-old woman, a uterus from a deceased donor was used.
The unnamed recipient will now have the opportunity to get pregnant. Before the transplant, her eggs were removed and fertilized with her husbands sperm, so the procedure must be in vitro.
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Because she will need to be on continuous medication to prevent organ rejection, after pregnancy successfully occurs and she has one or two babies, the uterus will then be removed so that she can then stop taking medication.
The Cleveland Clinic’s ethics panel has allowed for 10 experimental procedures before they officially make this a standard procedure. Additional candidates are still being determined.
This transplant procedure has previously been successfully executed in Sweden by doctors from the University of Gothenburg. For that reason, Dr. Andreas G. Tzakis, who performed the surgery in Cleveland, traveled to Sweden to meet with them and prepare. Tzakis had already performed 4,000 to 5,000 transplants of kidneys, livers and other abdominal organs before completing the uterus transplant.
According to Reuters, Uterine Factor Infertility (UFI) is an irreversible condition found in 3 percent to 5 percent of women worldwide. So thousands of women who want to become pregnant could potentially benefit from this procedure.
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Photo: Flickr user Sean Molin
