July 27, 2023 – A girl born with no uterus gives birth to a boy in Alabama.
It is the primary time a baby has been born to a girl with a transplanted uterus outside of a clinical trial. Representatives of the University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital, where the two-year trial took place, said in a opinion this week the birth is launching their uterus transplant program so it could be covered by insurance.
The uterus transplant, in vitro fertilization and pregnancy process involves 50 doctors and is open to women with a condition called uterine factor infertility (UFI). This condition affects as much as 5% of girls of childbearing age worldwide. Women with UFI cannot carry a pregnancy to term because they were either born with no uterus, it was removed by hysterectomy or their uterus will not be functioning properly.
The woman, identified by the hospital as Mallory, moved along with her family to the Birmingham area to take part in the transplant program, one in every of 4 programs underway within the United States. Mallory learned at age 17 that she was born with no uterus because of a condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome. Her first child, a daughter, was born after her sister carried the pregnancy as a surrogate.
Mallory received her uterus from a deceased donor. Her son was born in May.
“As with other types of organ transplants, the woman must take immunosuppressive medications to prevent the body from rejecting the transplanted uterus,” the transplant program's statement said. website it says: “If the woman does not want any more children after the baby is born, the transplanted uterus is removed during a hysterectomy and the woman no longer needs to take anti-rejection medication.”
“There are many various ways to begin a family should you suffer from uterine infertility, but these [uterus transplantation] is what I used to be alleged to do,” Mallory said in a statement. “I mean, hearing the scream was just, you realize, overwhelming.”