
The first ever uterus transplant from a deceased donor is making big waves in the medical community.
Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic are gearing up for what could be a huge breakthrough in the coming months: the first transplant of a uterus from a deceased donor to a live woman.
The transplant is tentatively planned for a few months from now once uteruses become available, and so far eight women have signed up for screenings in what could be a miracle solution to women who are barren, according to a New York Times report.
The procedure would build off the recent success in Sweden where a uterus was transplanted from a live woman to another woman, but scientists, concerned about unnecessarily endangering living women, wanted to try it with a deceased woman’s uterus.
Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic are all set for such a surgery a few months from now, and if it’s successful, it could open a world of new childbirth possibilities for the 50,000 women in the United States alone who can’t bear children.
A total of 10 operations will be conducted, and then the hospital will reevaluate how successful they were to see if they should be opened up to a broader range of people.
Concerns about the procedure mainly stem from the side effects of the powerful drugs that are needed to keep the body from rejecting the transplant. The procedure may also require future surgeries in order to remove the uterus after the birth of one or two children, and new surgeries always present a risk.
It’s also a complex procedure that will require a lot of preparation on the part of the future mother, who must have her eggs fertilized via in vitro fertilization and have the eggs frozen until the transplant is completed.
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