Drugs/Therapy

Hospital Preps for First Ever Uterus Transplant

By Dustin Braden | Update Date: Nov 14, 2015 01:57 PM EST

Infertile women who have tried every remedy they can think of to get pregnant may soon have a radical new option in the effort to get pregnant: a uterus transplant.

Sometime in the next several months, a team of highly skilled and accomplished doctors at the Cleveland Clinic will attempt to transplant a uterus for the first time, The New York Times reports.

The large team of doctors and nurses that will be involved in the transplant are being led by Andreas G. Tzakis, Uma Perni, Rebecca Flyckt, and Tommaso Falcone.

All the more remarkable is the fact that the transplant would only be temporary and the uterus would be removed from the woman who received it after giving birth to a baby or two. This will allow the recipient to stop taking the myriad of drugs that are required of people who receive transplants so that their immune system does not reject the transplanted organ.

These drugs pose risks to the fetuses that will develop in this women, and the fact the uterus was in a dead woman also increases the likelihood of complications during pregnancy. The procedure is also controversial because usually people get organ transplants because they need them in order to keep living. The uterus transplant would be an intense surgery with long-term ramifications but would not be necessary to keep a person alive.

Nonetheless, the procedure promises to give hope to the estimated 50,000 women in the United States who want to give birth but are unable to.

The Cleveland Clinic is in the process of selecting the first woman to undergo the procedure, and is evaluating eight different candidates.

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