Texas Doctors Deliver First-Ever US Baby After A Uterine Transplant

A team of doctors in Dallas, Texas, delivered a healthy baby boy in November by uterine transplant at the Baylor University Medical Center. This is the first delivery of its kind to have successfully occurred in the United States after the medical team used organs donated by a living woman.

Uterus transplants have successfully worked in six live births, with the first occurring in 2014 by a team of Swedish doctors. The procedure has also resulted in several failed in attempts in countries like Brazil, Germany and the U.S. after most scenarios utilized living donors. Baylor doctors, however, managed to make use of non-deceased women that provided organs to women seeking an additional option to conceive a child.

"This first live birth to a uterus transplant recipient in the United States was a milestone in our work to solve absolute uterine factor infertility," said Giuliano Testa, MD, principal investigator of the uterine transplant clinical trial at Baylor. "More importantly, a beautiful moment of love and hope for a mother who had been told she would never be able to carry her own child."

Baylor first announced its clinical trials in January. Participants suffer from absolute uterine factor infertility (AUI), which means that the woman's uterus is either nonfunctioning or nonexistent. Baylor medical professionals worked alongside a surgical team from the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden — a country that's considered to be the most knowledgeable on successful uterine transplants.

Taylor Siler, a Dallas-based nurse, donated her uterus to the woman who gave birth through a transplant. Siler, 36, had undergone several screenings to determine her mental and physical health ahead of donating her organs. After the surgery, she was required to partake in 12 weeks of recovery.

The woman managed to give birth through a C-section.

"We've been preparing for this moment for a very long time," said Dr. Liza Johannesson, a Sweedish ob-gyn and uterus transplant surgeon that worked with Baylor, according to Time. "I think everyone had tears in their eyes when the baby came out. I did for sure."

AUI is considered to be a very uncommon medical condition that affects less than 5 percent of women. If a woman's uterus was determined to be severely damaged or nonexistent, then her only option was to hire a surrogate and use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to have a child that's biologically theirs. The success of uterine transplant procedures, like at Baylor, could change the future of infertility.

"We know firsthand that this can work, and it has the potential to help thousands of women worldwide born without a functioning uterus," Johannesson said.