A woman born without a uterus welcomed a baby boy, becoming the first person outside of a clinical trial to give birth after receiving a uterus transplant.
The mom, identified by University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital only as Mallory, was 17 when she was diagnosed with, which affects approximately 1 in 4,500 female newborns. She was told she would never be able to biologically carry her own child.
Years later, Mallory and her husband Nick had a daughter via a surrogate, Mallory's own sister, the hospital said in a Monday news release. They wanted another child, but asking Mallory's sister to undergo another pregnancy would have risked the sister's own health, so the couple began looking into uterine transplant.
"There are all different ways to grow your family if you have uterine factor infertility, but this [uterus transplantation] is what I feel like I knew that I was supposed to do," Mallory said. Mallory was able to get the uterus from a deceased donor, according to the hospital. She, Nick and their daughter moved to Birmingham, Alabama, for the start of an 18-month process from transplant, to embryo implantation to birth.
The process can take two to five years for many patients. An embryo is generated through in vitro fertilization before the transplant surgery. The mom-to-be is given immunosuppressive medications after the transplant and throughout the pregnancy to prevent transplant rejection. Several months after the transplant, doctors place one of the recipient's embryos directly into the uterus. The baby is delivered via a planned cesarean section.
If the parents want another child, the uterus is left in place and the mom continues taking immunosuppressive drugs. The transplanted uterus is removed and immunosuppressive medications are stopped once the parents are done having children.
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