Womb transplant surgery allows woman to give birth using mother's uterus

[Member11]

A woman has given birth to a baby from the same womb she was born from, after receiving a uterus from her mother.

Emelie Eriksson, who was born without a womb, received the organ from her mother and nearly two years ago, in a world first, gave birth to son Albin.

"It's like science fiction," the 30-year-old from a town near Stockholm said. "This is something that you read in history books and now in the future when you read about this, it's about me."

Her operation was performed by pioneering Swedish doctor Mats Brannstrom, who is the only person in the world to deliver babies — five so far — from women with donated wombs.

Ms Eriksson was 15 when she began wondering why she had not got her period and tests later revealed she had been born without a womb and doctors said she would never be able to carry her own children.

In her early 20s, Ms Eriksson began reading about scientists attempting to create organs from stem cells and was told about the womb transplant research being pursued by Dr Brannstrom.

She described the novel project to her mother one Sunday evening.

"I thought this was something that could only happen [far] in the future," Marie Eriksson, 53, said.

"But then I said to Emelie, 'I'm so old, I don't need my womb and I don't want any more children. This is your only chance to have a child and you should take it'."

Ms Eriksson emailed Dr Brannstrom and after dozens of medical tests for both Ms Ericksson and her mother, they were accepted into his trial testing the pioneering transplant.

"I'd known all my life that I wouldn't be able to be pregnant," Ms Eriksson said.

"But maybe now there was a small, small chance for me."

After a year, Ms Eriksson was finally ready to attempt to get pregnant and Dr Brannstrom's team transferred a single embryo into her womb, which Ms Eriksson and Mr Chrysong had created during in-vitro fertilisation.

An initial pregnancy test returned a negative result, but another a week later revealed a baby had been conceived.

Ms Eriksson was only convinced they had succeeded when she heard her newborn son scream in the delivery room in 2014.

Mr Chrysong was so overcome that he fainted and had to be watched over by the anesthesiology nurse on the floor of the hospital room.

Ms Eriksson's agreed to share her story because she hopes other women who need help having a child will be encouraged and inspired by her family's extraordinary womb transplantation experience.

"I hope this will be a reality for everyone that needs it," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-0...s-womb/7913646

[Ironman]

That's weird. She gave birth with the same organs as what she had. At least this is no chance of rejection, but what if she wants it back?
The uterus was the transplant, not the ovaries? That means that the boy is not the mother's half brother, but definitely her son?

[MobileChucko]

There is indeed a chance of rejection, Ironman. We receive half our genetic make-up from our mother, and half from out father. That makes each of us a unique individual, unless you are an identical twin. Most of the time, our own family members are not a good match for any form of transplanted organ because the genetics are so different. So most women would not be able to donate their womb to their daughters.

And that has me wondering... Should a woman taking anti-rejection drugs for say a kidney transplant, stay away from getting pregnant? Would anti-rejection drugs cause the baby harm?

Hmmm...