A 36-year-old woman who had undergone a uterine transplant has just given birth to a baby. A “first” in France.
- The mother suffered from a congenital absence of the uterus
- She had benefited in 2019 from the transplant of this organ donated by her own mother
- This birth is a “first” in France
This is a first in France and a hope for many women. A little girl was born on February 12 at the Foch hospital in Suresnes (92) to a 36-year-old mother who had benefited from a uterus transplant. The baby weighed 1.84 kilos at birth and, according to the formula used and taken up by Professor Jean-Marc Ayoubi, head of the gynecology-obstetrics and reproductive medicine department of the hospital, “the mother and the child are doing well.
The transplant mother suffered from a congenital absence of the uterus (or a non-functional uterus) called Rokitansky syndrome, a birth defect which affects one in 4,500 women. She too had benefited from a “first” in France with a uterus transplant performed by the same team at Foch Hospital in 2019, the graft having been donated by his own mother then aged 57.
A first birth in 2014 in Sweden
It was in 2014 that the first birth following a uterus transplant took place in Sweden. According to The Lancet which reported this information, it is a little boy who was then born to a 35-year-old mother, also with a congenital absence of the uterus, and following a transplant of a uterus taken from a living woman and mother of two children aged 61. For this first case, an in-vitro fertilization treatment of the recipient and her partner had been carried out before the transplantation of the embryo.
In the case of this Swedish patient, the Lancet report states, her period started 43 days after the uterus was implanted and continued at regular intervals thereafter. It was a year after this uterine transplant that a first embryo transfer was performed and resulted in a pregnancy. Despite immunosuppressive treatment, this patient had suffered three episodes of “mild” rejection, including one during her pregnancy, rejection which had been stopped by treatment with corticosteroids.
The mother, after preeclampsia at 31 weeks and 5 days, had given birth by caesarean section, giving birth to a baby boy of normal weight (1.77 kilos).
These births of children following uterine transplants revive the hope of procreation for all women born without a uterus or who have had this organ removed, representing, as AFP points out in its dispatch concerning the birth at Suresnes hospital, “an experimental alternative to adoption or surrogacy which remains prohibited in France”.
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