Uterus transplants allow women to become pregnant; Report

According to a new study, more than half of women in the United States who got a uterus through a transplant had healthy pregnancies. Between 2016 and 2021, 33 women in the United States underwent uterine transplants, and 19 of them, or 58 percent, delivered a total of 21 infants, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery. The researchers said, ‘Uterus transplantation should be regarded as a clinical reality in the United States.’  The women all had total uterine-factor infertility, which means they were either born without a uterus or had it removed.

According to Dr. Liza Johannesson of Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, more than a million women in the United States might benefit from uterine transplantation. One year after the transplant, the uterus was still functional in 74% of patients. According to the study, 83 percent of this group had live-born children. The infants were all born through Cesarean section 14 months following the donation. Moreover, half were delivered after 36 weeks of pregnancy.

The transplanted uterus is removed after the recipient delivers birth to eliminate the requirement for lifelong immunosuppressive medication usage. The procedures in the United States, which took place at Baylor University Medical Center, the Cleveland Clinic, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, are among more than 100 uterine transplants completed globally. Some ladies may be put off by the cost. ‘ Uterus transplant is de facto a reproductive therapy,’ and some insurance companies may refuse to fund it, according to Baylor coauthor Dr. Giuliano Testa in an email.

‘Insurance coverage for uterine transplantation is part of a bigger conversation about infertility treatment coverage in general,’ Johannesson explained. The uterus came from a living donor in two-thirds of U.S. transplants, with one in every four patients experiencing a surgical complication. ‘ If the dead donor pool is insufficient, reducing the danger to live donors should be a priority,’ Drs. Rachel Forbes and Seth Karp of Vanderbilt University in Nashville wrote in an accompanying editorial.