Uterine transplantation may be an option for women who want to get pregnant but don’t have a uterus or who don’t have a healthy uterus, making pregnancy impossible.
However, uterine transplantation is a complex procedure that can only be performed in women and is still being tested in countries such as the United States and Sweden.
- In this surgery.
- Doctors remove the sick uterus.
- Keeping the ovaries and placing another woman’s healthy uterus in place.
- Without it attaching to the ovaries.
- This “new” uterus can be taken from a family member of the same blood group or donated by another compatible woman.
- And the possibility of using a particular uterus after death is also being considered.
In addition to the uterus, the recipient must also have part of the other woman’s vagina to facilitate the procedure and should take medications to prevent rejection of the new uterus.
After 1 year of waiting, to know if the uterus is not rejected by the body, the woman may become pregnant by in vitro fertilization, because natural pregnancy is impossible since the ovaries are not connected to the uterus.
Doctors do not connect the new uterus to the ovaries because it would be very difficult to prevent scarring that would make it difficult for the egg to pass through the fallopian tubes to the uterus, which could make pregnancy difficult or facilitate the development of an ectopic pregnancy. For example. .
In order for in vitro fertilization to be performed, prior to uterine transplantation, doctors extract the mature eggs from the woman so that after being fertilized, in the laboratory, they can be placed inside the transplanted uterus, allowing a pregnancy. by C-section.
The uterus transplant is always temporary, leaving alone for the time of 1 or 2 pregnancies, to prevent the woman from having to take immunosuppressants for life.
Although pregnancy can be possible, uterine transplantation is very risky as it can cause a variety of complications for the mother or baby. Risks include:
In addition, the use of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent organ rejection can cause other complications, which are not yet quite known.