Now, you're going to have to read slowly here. And carefully, to 'get' the full depth of what has just happened in Sweden, actually on October 6, 2014. Just yesterday!
First of all, a lady was born without a uterus; this is a congenital defect, Rotikansky syndrome. The second lady was 61 years old, and she donated her uterus to the first lady. (That has been done before, and attempted in vitro fertilization in a transplanted uterus has failed 11 times prior).
After about a year, the lady had established her periods (they don't say if she was on hormone therapy or if she was born with her ovaries), and on the first attempt, was able to carry her pregnancy to full, live birth by C-section at 31 weeks and 5 days.
There were about three times that her body wanted to reject the uterus, so they gave her immunosuppressant drugs like steroids, and calmed her body's response down. She developed preeclampsia and the decision to deliver was made, as described.
Photo 1. World's First In-Vitro Baby born to
recipient of transplanted uterus. For full article,
see Lancet. Healthy boy born to parents yesterday,
in Sweden.
The medical world is excited that a post-menopausal donor could donate her uterus, and that it would 'take.' Perhaps this opens the door to women who just want a uterus back after a botched hysterectomy, so that they are not depressed and suicidal. Perhaps it opens a door that should not be opened. For now, and for today, it is cause for celebration as a medical miracle, one that gives hope for a post-menopausal uterus to be used as a donor transplantation. How or whether another childbirth can be repeated remains a mystery. But the rule in medicine is: If it happens once, it can happen twice.
So, there is always cause for hope.
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Short Stories about Dr. Margaret Aranda
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Age 31: The Color Blue
When I read about this yesterday, I couldn't help but wonder what this all means. I thought about how my own healthy uterus was stolen via an unconsented hysterectomy after I had just turned 46 in 2007.
ReplyDeleteIt made me wonder if my uterus may have been sold to a tissue and/or organ company for experimentation or transplant purposes - especially since the surgical consent doubled as a tissue/organ donor consent. Mostly though, this story -this news- made me incredibly sad (although I'm pretty much incredibly sad every day of my life since undergoing unconsented hysterectomy and castration) to think about the fact that I could possibly have had another baby. I wanted one and the doctor who stole my uterus knew that. He also knew that I was engaged. What's worse, he knew that my two youngest children were kidnapped by their father in 1998 and never came home again. Having another baby meant the world to me...
I've thought about my older son (who will be 29 next month) and wondered what will happen if he's not able to have a baby for some reason. I wonder if I could have helped him and his wife had my own healthy uterus and ovaries not been stolen. God, I wonder so many things...
I'm happy for this miracle and new life, but at the same time, I'm mortified regarding all the many questions I have. I wonder the same thing as you Dr. Margaret. Does this open the door for women like me (and there are hundreds of thousands) to get a uterus transplant so I can feel like a whole woman again and not be depressed and suicidal anymore. I think what happened here clearly shows us that the uterus is not a throw-away organ as gynecologists say that it is.
What if the uterus donor had undergone hysterectomy as 1 in 3 women her age has? This miracle would not have happened. I think a big take away here should be that the uterus has a purpose all of a woman's life - not just during her reproductive years. The uterus is a sacred organ from which all life springs forth and it's criminal that over half a million women undergo unnecessary removal of this sacred organ every year in the U.S.