In a medical first, a mother who received a uterus transplant from a dead donor gave birth to a healthy baby, researchers reported on Wednesday.
The breakthrough operation, performed in September 2016 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, shows that such transplants are feasible and could help thousands of women unable to have children due to uterine problems, according to a study published in The Lancet.
The baby girl had been born in December 2017, the medical journal said.
Until recently, the only options available to women with so-called uterine infertility were adoption or the services of a surrogate mother.
The first successful birth following uterine transplant from a living donor took place in 2014 in Sweden, and there have been 10 others since then.
But there are far more women in need of transplants than there are potential live donors, so doctors wanted to find out if the procedure could work using the uterus of a woman who had died.
Ten attempts were made – in the US, Czech Republic and Turkey – before the success reported on Wednesday.
Infertility affects 10% to 15% of couples.
Of this group, one in 500 women has problems with her uterus that prevent her from becoming pregnant or carrying a child to term.
“Our results provide a proof-of-concept for a new option for women with uterine infertility,” a doctor at the teaching hospital of the University of Sao Paulo, Dani Ejzenberg, said
He described the procedure as a medical milestone.
The 32-year-old recipient was born without a uterus.
Four months before the transplant, she had in-vitro fertilisation resulting in eight fertilised eggs, which were preserved through freezing.
The donor was a 45-year-old woman who died from a stroke. Her uterus was removed and transplanted in surgery of more than 10 hours.
To prevent the recipient’s body from rejecting the new organ, she was given five different drugs, along with antimicrobials, anti-blood clotting treatments and aspirin.
After five months, the uterus showed no sign of rejection, ultrasound scans were normal, and the woman was menstruating regularly.
The fertilised eggs were implanted after seven months.
Ten days later, doctors said she was pregnant.
Besides a minor kidney infection, in the 32nd week, the pregnancy was normal.
After nearly 36 weeks, a baby girl weighing 2.5kg was delivered via caesarean section.
The transplanted uterus was removed during the C-section, allowing the woman to stop taking the immunosuppressive drugs.
International Federation of Fertility Societies president Richard Kennedy welcomed the announcement, but sounded a note of caution, saying uterine transplant should be regarded as experimental.