Pregnant with a donated uterus? Who can this help?
The fact is: Around 15,000 women in Germany cannot have children because they either lost their wombs early – for example due to cancer or accidents – or have none at all.
Because of the congenital malformation called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, 80 to 100 girls are born in Germany each year with ovaries, but without a vagina and uterus.
These women usually have no chance of having their own child. Surrogacy is prohibited in Germany, only adoption or pregnancy with a transplanted uterus remain worldwide. There are only a few clinics worldwide that research and carry out such procedures.
★ For the first time in 2019, two women in Germany gave birth to children with a donated uterus. The two babies were born healthy – in March and mid-May at the University Hospital in Tübingen.
★ For the first time worldwide, a woman in Sweden with a donated uterus gave birth to a healthy baby in 2014.
How did these births come after uterine transplantation?
Years of preparation were necessary for the Tübingen medical team before the first uterine transplant could be successfully carried out in autumn 2016.
What actually seemed impossible: Because both women were born without a womb and without a vagina!
▶ ︎ After applying a vagina in adolescence, a so-called neovagina, a uterus was successfully transplanted. They became pregnant and gave birth by caesarean section.
Even a second pregnancy with a transplanted uterus is considered possible by the doctors. At the latest after the second child, the uterus should be removed again.
The service of security: The medication that is necessary to prevent rejection of the donation uterus should be limited to the shortest possible time for the benefit of the mother.
There are also ethical concerns
Many consider the transplant to be a disproportionate means of enabling a woman to become pregnant. The critics especially focus on the donor.
Her argument: During a uterine transplant, a healthy donor is subjected to an extremely invasive measure – namely an operation lasting several hours – which has no health benefit for her.
Since it is not a question of saving the recipient’s life, the ethical legitimation for a living donation is questionable.
Uterine transplants have also been performed previously.
✔︎ In December 2017, for example, a woman in São Paulo, Brazil gave birth to a healthy girl. It developed well after birth and weighed a proud 7.2 kilograms seven months later. The fascinating thing about it: The little girl had grown up in the womb of a dead woman!
The Brazilian, was born without a womb. At the age of 32, she underwent the uterus of a recently deceased 46-year-old in a ten-hour operation.
Four months after the new uterus was inserted, eggs were taken from the woman, five of them artificially fertilized and frozen. The doctors waited for the patient’s first menstrual period before inserting one of the fertilized eggs.
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