AFP - The first woman ever to receive a uterus from a deceased donor, is two-weeks pregnant following a successful embryo transplant, her doctors said on Friday.
The 22-year-old Derya Sert was revealed to be almost two-weeks pregnant in preliminary results after in vitro fertilisation at Akdeniz University Hospital in Turkey's southern province of Antalya, her doctor Mustafa Unal said in a written statement.
"She is doing just fine at the moment," Unal said.
Sert was described as a "medical miracle" when she became the first woman in the world to have a successful womb transplant from a dead donor in August 2011 at the same Antalya hospital.
The groundbreaking news of her pregnancy will rekindle hopes for thousands of childless women across the world who are unable to bear their own babies.
Sert was born without a uterus, like one in every 5,000 women around the world, and her doctors waited 18 months before implanting the embryo to make sure the foreign organ was still functioning.
Hers was the second womb transplant to be performed in the world, the first being in Saudi Arabia in 2000 from a living donor, which failed after 99 days due to heavy clotting. Doctors had to remove the organ.
The baby is expected to be delivered via C-section and the uterus to be removed from Sert in the months following the birth to avoid further complications and the risk of rejection.
The young woman had started to menstruate after the transplant, which her doctors had said was an important signal that the womb was functional.
Experts however warn the pregnancy carries several health risks to the patient as well as to the baby, including birth defects due to the use of immunosuppressive drugs as well as preterm delivery.
Good for her, and others with similar conditions.
Wasn't quite sure if this was SLAM, OT, or N&P material, but I decided here because of SCIENCE.
"I believe in the future. It is wonderful because it stands on what has been achieved." - Sergei Korolev
However, the risks are pretty significant. I'm not sure I'd OK this ethically if I was the one deciding. Since I am not I will merely wish everyone involved good health and good luck.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Like what else? Things like ovaries and fallopian tubes are optional if you're using IVF techniques. The "neo-vagina" of a transwoman probably couldn't handle childbirth but that's what c-sections are for.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Broomstick wrote:Like what else? Things like ovaries and fallopian tubes are optional if you're using IVF techniques. The "neo-vagina" of a transwoman probably couldn't handle childbirth but that's what c-sections are for.
More importantly, the pelvis of a transwoman would still be male and therefore unable to separate properly as well as being the wrong shape to allow the baby to pass through. The pelvis is the primary means of determining gender with skeletal remains. It seems somewhat risky to have a pregnancy that must be delivered by c-section.
I have a sister who just a couple months into her first pregnancy was told all her children without exception would be delivered by C-section (I don't have further details). She nonetheless had not only the first but deliberately had a second. So, not unprecedented. Lots of women have gotten pregnant knowing for sure they would have to have C-sections. Sure, there's a risk there but if someone really wants kids they'll often take risks to achieve that goal.
Compared to some of the risks of organ transplantation and the necessary immune suppression a planned C-section is pretty tame.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Are there transgendered women who are that set on actually carrying a child? If they wouldn't be able to conceive or deliver it naturally, why not just adopt? It seems like a considerable amount of physical risk and it would probably be ruinously expensive to boot.
And this is why you don't watch anything produced by Ronald D. Moore after he had his brain surgically removed and replaced with a bag of elephant semen.-Gramzamber, on why Caprica sucks
Why would a transgendered woman be less determined of desiring to carry a child than a ciswoman? What makes you think this ciswoman naturally conceived or will naturally deliver this baby? (Even if the conception was natural it's very unlikely the delivery will be)
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Darksider wrote:Are there transgendered women who are that set on actually carrying a child? If they wouldn't be able to conceive or deliver it naturally, why not just adopt? It seems like a considerable amount of physical risk and it would probably be ruinously expensive to boot.
Well, it has to be said. One of the defining characteristics of a woman in a lot of people's eyes is the ability to bear children. Now that has a lot of issues of its own (especially given the unfortunate prevalence of women rendered sterile by accident or illness or even just genetics), but it's still a perception. To some of these people, wanting to be a woman could extend as far as having the 'classical' feminine trait of being able to carry and birth children.
Incidentally, this is also an argument sometimes used by feminist groups who want to exclude transwomen - that as they can't bear children, they aren't allowed to be women. It's a bizarre one with the same issues above.
"Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth." M.A.A.A
The definition of "man," it has to be said, is equally complicated. I can think of at least half a dozen entirely different, sometimes mutually exclusive, sentences people might say that start "If you're a real man, then you..."
Darksider wrote:Are there transgendered women who are that set on actually carrying a child? If they wouldn't be able to conceive or deliver it naturally, why not just adopt? It seems like a considerable amount of physical risk and it would probably be ruinously expensive to boot.
Well, it has to be said. One of the defining characteristics of a woman in a lot of people's eyes is the ability to bear children. Now that has a lot of issues of its own (especially given the unfortunate prevalence of women rendered sterile by accident or illness or even just genetics), but it's still a perception. To some of these people, wanting to be a woman could extend as far as having the 'classical' feminine trait of being able to carry and birth children.
Incidentally, this is also an argument sometimes used by feminist groups who want to exclude transwomen - that as they can't bear children, they aren't allowed to be women. It's a bizarre one with the same issues above.
The issue of not being able to bear their own biological children has always been a sore issue among the anti-transsexual crowd. I won't be surprised that once a trangendered woman can bear a child, they will be saying they aren't a full woman or man unless they can produce ovaries and sperm.
Humans are such funny creatures. We are selfish about selflessness, yet we can love something so much that we can hate something.
I remember a few years ago there was some news headlines about a man being pregnant, only to find out that it was actually a transgendered woman who'd retained their uterus when they had a sex change operation, so it wasn't really a pregnant man after all.
There's so much wrong with that post it took me a while to figure out where to start.
First, let's start with the word choice: the correct term is "transgender", because "transgendered" would have to come from a verb, and who's transgendering all these people? And there's no such thing as a "sex change operation"; there's hormone replacement therapy, there's surgery to reshape the genitals, there's surgery for the chest or face or other parts, too. None of these "change" someone's sex, but rather masculise or feminise the person's appearance more.
Second, and much more importantly the person is a trans man and a he. He's a man who was born with a functional uterus; that doesn't mean he's any less of a man.
And so third, yes, it really was a pregnant man after all. He's a man, he was pregnant, and so I think you can fill in the conclusion here on your own.
AP by way of Perth Now wrote:Turkish womb transplant patient Derya Sert loses baby
AP, May 14, 2013 11:09PM
A TURKISH woman who was the first to get pregnant with a transplanted donor womb has had her pregnancy terminated.
Derya Sert was born without a womb and had one transplanted in August 2011. The 22-year-old became pregnant after doctors placed an embryo into her womb, using one of her own eggs.
A statement from Akdeniz University Hospital said the eight-week pregnancy was terminated because the fetal heartbeat had stopped.
It said Ms Sert would receive new fertilisation treatment to try and get pregnant again.
A successful birth would provide hope for women who were born without a womb or who lose it to disease.
"I believe in the future. It is wonderful because it stands on what has been achieved." - Sergei Korolev
