First Baby Born In U.S. To Mom With Uterus Transplant

DALLAS, TX — The first baby in the United States born to a woman who received a uterus transplant was delivered in late November in Texas, doctors at Baylor University Medical Center announced Friday. The birth marked the latest milestone in a uterus transplant clinical trial being conducted at the hospital.

The mother received the uterus transplant as part of a clinical trial conducted over the past year and a half. In October of last year, the doctors announced that they performed four uterine transplants and tests showed that only one of the patients was receiving blood flow to the uterus.

Doctors at Baylor worked alongside a Swedish surgical team whose uterine transplants have resulted in five births. According to The Dallas Morning News, eight women have received a donated uterus at the Baylor program to date.

"This first live birth to a uterus transplant recipient in the United States was a milestone in our work to solve absolute uterine factor infertility; but, more importantly, a beautiful moment of love and hope for a mother who had been told she would never be able to carry her own child," Transplant Surgeon and Lead Investigator Dr. Giuliano Testa said in a statement.

The transplant team revealed in an interview to the paper that a second woman who received a transplant is pregnant. All of the women enrolled in the Baylor program suffer from absolute uterine infertility, meaning they had no uterus and childbirth would never be an option.

“It gives hope to women who didn’t feel like they had hope,” Dr. Colin Koon, a transplant team surgeon, told the paper.

The transplants are meant to be temporary, left in place long enough for a woman to have one or two babies, according to The New York Times.

As The Dallas Morning News notes, the treatment is not likely to become mainstream anytime soon. Questions remains such as whether the procedure is worth the risk for women who want to have children.

Photo via Baylor University Medical Center