If Braennstroem's predictions come true, uterus will become the first human organ that is transplanted not for the sake of saving a patient's life
Swedish Professor Mats Braennstroem says that in three years the first baby may be born from a transplanted uterus. According to the scientist, experiments that his team performed on animals proved that a child can normally develop in a transplanted uterus.
Mats Braennstroem says that it is the mother of a patient who is the best donor. So, patients may have a chance to bear babies in the same uteri where they developed themselves long ago. The scientist adds this concerns not only women but also men. Mats Braennstroem says there is an opportunity to transplant a uterus into a man's body; additional hormonal treatment will help make pregnancy more successful.
If Braennstroem's predictions come true, uterus will become the first human organ that is transplanted not for the sake of saving a patient's life.
The professor demonstrated the results of his research at an annual session of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology in Madrid. He said that many women appealed to him for help since first publication of the results of his uteri transplantation experiments on mice. Last year, experimental mice with transplanted uteri produced healthy pups in the professor's laboratories.
Thousand of women cannot have babies: they lost their uterus because of emergency operations connected with early stages of cervical cancer. Until recently the only chance to have babies for these women was to make a bargain with other women who agreed to bear their babies. In many countries agreements of this kind are prohibited by the law. What is more, in many countries surrogate mothers are registered as legal mothers of babies born through surrogacy. One more problem that parents may face if they decide to try surrogacy is that they cannot control the course of pregnancy; they won't be able to see if the surrogate mother smokes during her pregnancy and so on.
Doctors in Saudi Arabia already performed uterus transplantation from one woman to another. However, the success of the operation did not last long: in 100 days after the operation, which surgeons considered a success, they had to take the organ out as there were problems with blood transportation to the uterus and it started mortifying.
Professor Braennstroem says he has developed quite a new surgical technology that may solve the problem.
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