First Womb Transplant In The World

The First Successful Womb Transplant In The World.

22-year-old Mrs. Derya Sert of Turkey, recipient of the world's first successful womb transplant.  

In an operation that lasted seven hours, Derya Sert of Turkey became the first person in the world to receive a womb transplant. Sert is the wife of a mechanic, the daughter of a farmer who was born without a womb. 


She is 22 years old and this is the very first successful womb (uterus) transplant in humans and it may just have opened a new way for millions of barren women across the globe still trying and hoping to conceive. The operation was carried out by a team of doctors at the Akdeniz University Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.


In 2000, a similar operation was carried out on 26-year-old a woman in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using a womb from a living donor but the womb died off after a few months. Womb transplants have been successfully carried out in animals like sheep.


Sert received the womb from a woman who died in an automobile accident. However, the womb is fully functional and is working properly. For a very long time, she had dreamt of having a child of her own and the dream may become reality as she is set to start her invitro fertilization (IVF) treatment in September using her own eggs and the husband's sperms. 


 She says joyfully that she does not care about the sex of the child, all she wants is a healthy baby. Hear her: ‘If I had a magic wand, I would want to be pregnant now. I just want to hold my baby in my arms, to be a mother.’

Her doctor says that some women are ready to risk everything, including their lives, just to be pregnant. In addition, no one can really say how much her body will accept the womb or reject it later or even how the pregnancy will fare. But whatever the case, the child will be delivered via caesarean section because the new structure is not strong enough for a natural birth. 

Dr. Omer Ozkan, the surgeon

22-year-old Mrs. Derya Sert of Turkey, on hospital bed.  

Sert, who is a housewife, has never menstruated before but her ovaries produce eggs. Three weeks after the transplant, she started menstruating for the first time, a very good sign that the womb is properly functioning. In the future, this kind of transplant will become more popular and some doctors are already showing preference for women donating to their daughters since they have completed their own reproductive functions. Can you donate your womb?


BORN WITHOUT A WOMB:

In a medical condition known as  Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKH) or Müllerian agenesis, the mullerian ducts fail to develop and the baby girl is born wombless and without fallopian tubes (oviducts). In such people, there is normal pubertal development, the ovaries are fine, eggs are produced and there is ovulation. But of what use are the eggs if there is no womb to carry them to fruition? The condition is said to occur in 1 in 5000 females.