Woman Pregnant After a Womb Transplant

19.04.2013

The first woman to receive a uterus from a deceased donor is pregnant following a successful embryo transplant.

Derya Sert, 22, was revealed to be almost two weeks pregnant in preliminary results after in vitro fertilisation at Akdeniz University Hospital in Turkey's southern province of Antalya.

Her doctor, Mustafa Unal, said in a written statement: "She is doing just fine at the moment."

Mrs Sert was described as a "medical miracle" when she became the first woman in the world to have a successful womb transplant from a dead donor in August 2011 at the same Antalya hospital.

The news of her pregnancy will rekindle hopes for thousands of childless women across the world who are unable to bear their own babies.

Mrs Sert was born without a uterus, like one in every 5,000 women around the world. Her doctors waited 18 months before implanting the embryo to make sure the foreign organ was still functioning.

Hers was the second womb transplant to be performed in the world, the first being in Saudi Arabia in 2000 from a living donor. It failed after 99 days because of heavy clotting. Doctors had to remove the organ.

The baby is expected to be delivered via Caesarean section and the uterus removed from Mrs Sert in the months following the birth to avoid further complications and the risk of rejection.

The young woman had started to menstruate after the transplant, which her doctors had said was an important signal that the womb was functional.

However, experts have warned that the pregnancy carries several health risks to the mother as well as to the baby, including birth defects due to the use of immunosuppressive drugs as well as pre-term delivery.

www.telegraph.co.uk

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