CLEVELAND — The recipient of the nation’s first uterus transplant
said Monday that she prayed for years to be able to bear a child, and
is grateful to the deceased donor’s family and surgeons who’ve given her
that chance.
Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic
said Monday that the 26-year-old woman is recovering well after
receiving the uterus late last month. The experimental surgery is part
of a new frontier in transplantation that, if it works, might be an
alternative for some of the thousands of women unable to have children
because they were born without a uterus or lost it to disease.
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Lindsey and her husband Blake stand with Cleveland Clinic medical staff as they announce Monday she was the nation's first uterus transplant patient. |
The woman, identified only as Lindsey to protect her family’s privacy,
appeared briefly at a news conference with her husband. She said she
already is a mother to three “beautiful little boys” adopted through
foster care and that she was told when she was 16 that she wouldn’t be
able to bear children.
“From that moment on, I’ve prayed that God would allow me the
opportunity to experience pregnancy,” she said. “And here we are today,
at the beginning of that journey.”
The woman must wait at least a year to ensure the new uterus is healthy
enough to try getting pregnant through in vitro fertilization, using
embryos frozen ahead of the operation. To monitor the transplant, she
will undergo monthly examinations.
Other countries have tried womb transplants. Sweden reported the first
successful birth in 2014, with a total of five healthy babies from nine
transplants so far. The transplant team at the Cleveland Clinic, which has been exploring the possibility of performing uterus transplants for 10 years, trained with the Swedish surgeons.
