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Image Source: Wikimedia Commons / Canwest News Service
BY JASMINE BAILEY
The woman who was the first to have a successful uterus transplant has now hit another first
— she is the first woman with a uterus transplant to become pregnant.
Twenty-two-year-old Derya Sert from Turkey was born without a uterus, an affliction that
affects 5,000 women worldwide. Sert had a successful transplant from a deceased donor
in 2011. She is now two weeks pregnant. (Via Videocugeldihanim / Youtube)
In an email to Yahoo! Sert’s doctor in Turkey confirmed the news — writing,
“We are glad to inform that she is indeed pregnant. But she is now just at the beginning
of the pregnancy period. We hope everything goes well until the end of the pregnancy.”
(Via Yahoo!)
According to The Raw Story, Sert became pregnant through in vitro fertilization.
The New York Times points out — while Sert wasn’t the only woman to receive a womb
transplant — she is the only success story.
“…The first being in Saudi Arabia in 2000 from a living donor, which failed after 99
days due to heavy clotting. Doctors had to remove the organ.”
Orlando Medical News points out that with the beginning of uterus transplants came some
ethical concerns. They quote an ob/gyn saying —
"People having transplants usually have to take a lot of transplant medications to keep
them from rejecting the organ…It's very likely that those medications may not be compatible
with a safe pregnancy… if the objective is to have a safe pregnancy, then it would
be unlikely to reach that objective.”
In normal pregnancies there is about an 80% chance the pregnancy will turn into a baby
at the time of the first missed period. When a heartbeat is detected the chances go up
to about 90% and after the first trimester there is about a 95% chance the pregnancy
will become a baby. (Via Parenting)
If all goes well in Derya Sert’s pregnancy, her baby will be delivered by C-section and
the uterus will be taken out to prevent any further complications. (Via The Times)
In the words of an Opposing Views writer, “If the child is carried full-term and born
healthy, it will provide women around the world who were born without a uterus, or…lost
their uterus during an accident or sickness, a good sign and hope that they may be able
to have children.”