Uterus Implant To Help Infertile US Women Become Pregnant; Cleveland Clinic To Perform First Transplant

One year after the first successful uterus transplant birth in Sweden, the Cleveland Clinic announced Thursday its plan to conduct a study to transplant uterus in 10 women. The surgeons at the medical facility wish to become the first ones in the U.S. to have transplanted a uterus in the women who lack one.

The first uterus transplant operation is expected to take place within the next few months, the New York Times reported. The recipients of the uterus would be the women who were either born with no uterus, had it removed during the course of life or suffered a damage to it.

“We are proud to have received approval to move forward with this novel study. It is a product of many years of research, the expertise of our medical teams and the support of our organization,” said Dr. Tommaso Falcone, in a press release.

The procedure will be temporary, that is, the recipient can get rid of the transplanted organ after having two or three babies. Till the time the recipient bears the transplanted organ, she will have to take anti-rejection drugs.

Although uterine transplant is the new frontier in the medical field, the pregnancy of the woman who conceives after getting the transplant will be at high-risk because the fetus will remain exposed to anti-rejection drugs all the time. In addition, the uterine transplant will be taken from a dead donor. That means, the fetus will develop inside the womb of a woman who is already dead.

The prospective candidates will have to face a series of psychological and medical evaluations before they are finally selected for the procedure. The frozen embryos will be implanted into the women after one year of uterus transplant. The anti-rejection drugs will continue throughout pregnancy and will stop only after the transplanted organ is removed through hysterectomy.