World's first womb transplant planned

[Keroppi]

World's first womb transplant planned

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8571487/Worlds-first-womb-transplant-planned.html

A British based businesswoman is preparing to make history by becoming the first person in the world to have her womb transplanted into her daughter.

Eva Ottosson, 56, has agreed to take part in a groundbreaking new medical procedure, which if successful could see her donate her uterus to her 25-year-old daughter Sara.
......
The only previous womb transplant took place in Saudi Arabia in 2000 when a 26-year-old woman, who had lost her uterus due to haemorrhage, received a donated womb from a 46-year-old. However the recipient developed problems and the womb had to be removed after 99 days.
......
Sara, who lives and works in Stockholm, has a condition called Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, which affects around 1 in 5,000 people, and means she was born without a uterus and some parts of the vagina.

[~RoadToTrista~]

I don't see much of a point unless a transplanted womb let's you develop your own eggs, I assume it doesn't. Also is that woman's uterus even still functional?

[FairyGirl]

Here is an article on the same story from the Sydney morning Herald:

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/daughter-may-inherit-mothers-womb-20110613-1g0hq.html

evidently the girl has her own eggs, she was just born without a uterus.

[Lukas-H]

I don't see much of a point unless a transplanted womb let's you develop your own eggs, I assume it doesn't. Also is that woman's uterus even still functional?

I still think its a wonderful medical advancement.

Also, not everyone considers the ability to pass on their genetics as the most important thing. A lot of people who cannot bear children would love to have the chance to do it even if its not genetically theirs. It may not be of much interest to you, but a lot of other people would jump at the chance.

I still think it is wonderful. Of course, the possibility of this happening to trans-women is probably still a ways away and I can see complications happening with their anatomy (even if the transplant was successful), but I guess there is always the option of c-section.

[April Dawne]

I've wondered about the possibility of transplanting not just the womb, but the rest as well. I know nothing of medical science, so in my mind it's tissue, and why can't it work if it's a match for someone like a kidney or liver or heart? I know the reproductive organs do much more than these others. I've also wondered about the whole stem cell thing. What if one day a full set of reproductive organs could be grown from a person's own cells?
In any case, I think if nothing else, this is a step in the right direction.

[wendy]

Actually implications are very neat!

In future we night be able to turn on/off internal switches and allow a person to change their gender without surgery just like salmon have done.

However in current environment one would need many immune-suppressant drugs after a transplant which is not cool.

[Keroppi]

I've wondered about the possibility of transplanting not just the womb, but the rest as well. I know nothing of medical science, so in my mind it's tissue, and why can't it work if it's a match for someone like a kidney or liver or heart?

Well, different organs need different amounts of "connecting". Some of these connections are tiny blood vessels so the smaller in size, and greater in numbers those are the more difficult it becomes. For trans persons, there's also the problems that one part on its own isn't enough so you would need to transplant the whole set so to speak. And then there's whether there's enough space to fit it in for MTF who transitioned after puberty.

One can dream, maybe one day, if not for us then those that follow us.

[~RoadToTrista~]

A lot of people who cannot bear children would love to have the chance to do it even if its not genetically theirs. It may not be of much interest to you, but a lot of other people would jump at the chance.

I can understand wanting to bear your own children, but not someone else's, especially when you can adopt.