Woman gives birth to healthy child with uterus from dead donor

First-time healthy child born of uterus from dead donor

In Brazil, a woman with the uterus of a dead organ donor gave birth to a healthy child. The uterus was removed after birth. Mother and daughter are well. Never before has such an intervention been successful.

To fulfill the wish of children

Women who have no or too little uterus due to a genetic change from birth can not give birth. But a transplantation could fulfill the wish of many of these women. In 2013, for the first time ever, a woman with donor uterus in Gothenburg (Sweden) had given birth to a healthy baby. The then 36-year-old mother had been transplanted the organ only the year before. Now, for the first time in Brazil, a child was born with the uterus of a dead donor.

A Brazilian woman gave birth to a dead woman's womb. The organ had been implanted months before. The mother and her daughter are fine. (Image: PhotographyByMK / fotolia.com)

Woman gave birth to child with the uterus of a dead woman

For the first time in history, a woman with the uterus of a dead organ donor has given birth to a child.

The baby was born in Brazil at the end of 2017, the team reports. Dani Ejzenberg from the University Hospital São Paulo in the journal "The Lancet".

In September 2016, the then 32-year-old woman was hospitalized at Clínicas Hospital, University of São Paulo's uterus and hospitalized a few months later.

Already in the spring of 2016, the woman had undergone hormone treatment to remove eggs from her ovaries, which were frozen after artificial insemination.

The recipient suffers from the so-called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKHS), a congenital malformation in which the uterus is missing or incomplete.

The woman who had her first uterine transplant in Germany also suffers from this syndrome.

The 45-year-old donor in Brazil had died from a cerebral hemorrhage, according to a BBC report. According to the information, she had naturally given birth to three children in her life.

Uterus was removed after birth

The successful transplant took about ten hours.

During the procedure, the donor organ was connected to the blood vessels and the vagina. The recipient had to take medicines that suppress the immune system so that her body does not reject the organ.

About five months after the operation, she developed a regular cycle.

Two months later, the doctors placed fertilized eggs in the patient's uterus. Only ten days later, she was pregnant.

The child was born in the 36th week of pregnancy by caesarean section. The healthy girl weighed 2,550 grams and was 45 centimeters tall.

Now mother and daughter are well. Since the implanted uterus was removed directly after the caesarean section, the woman no longer needs to take immunosuppressants.

Previous transplants of dead donors were unsuccessful

According to "BBC", there were already ten transplants of dead donors, but all of them failed or caused a miscarriage.

The transplantation in Brazil is therefore considered a decisive breakthrough and proof that such an intervention is even possible.

The physicians now hope to be able to help significantly more women with unmet need for children in the future.

An uterine transplant is not only for women who have no functioning uterus due to a malformation, but also for those who have lost the organ through an illness or accident.

Dr. Dani Ejzenberg said: "The first live donor uterus transplants were a medical milestone that gave many infertile women the opportunity to have a baby with the help of appropriate donors and the necessary medical facilities."

However, "the need for a live donor is a significant limitation because donors are rare and typically family members or close friends."

Dr. Srdjan Saso of Imperial College London said the results were "extremely exciting".

"It allows the use of a much larger potential donor population, reduces costs and avoids the surgical risks of living donors." (Ad)