World’s first woman with uterus transplant gets pregnant

ANTALYA - Doğan News Agency

An embryo was successfully transferred to Derya Sert’s uterus following the transplant DHA photo

Derya Sert, who received the world’s first-ever uterus transplant from a deceased woman Aug. 8, 2011, at Akdeniz University in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, is pregnant with her first child, her doctors announced April 12.

An embryo was successfully transferred to Sert’s uterus following the transplant, and the transfer succeeded, making Sert the first woman ever to be impregnated through such a method.

A medical team of eight Turkish doctors successfully transferred a uterus from a deceased woman into Sert, who was previously unable to conceive. Since receiving the uterus, the woman has had normal menstruations.

Uterine transplants are new, with the first successful one conducted in Turkey in 2011. Two Swedish women received new uteruses in the world’s first mother-to-daughter uterine transplants aimed at helping them have babies, Gothenburg University announced several weeks after Derya’s successful operation.

The baby is expected to be delivered via C-section and the uterus to be removed from Sert in the months following the birth to avoid further complications and the risk of rejection, AFP reported.

One in 5,000 women worldwide is born without a uterus. Although the absence of a uterus does not pose a health risk, it prevents such women from conceiving a child.

The successful transplant conducted in Turkey could open up the door to thousands of women who suffer from the malady.

In 2002, a uterus was transplanted into a Saudi woman, but she had to have the transplant removed 99 days later when her body began to refuse the implanted uterus.