Baylor University Medical Center Announces Womb Transplant Trial
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas announced a revolutionary clinical trial at a news conference Friday.
The trial will see 10 women with absolute uterine factor infertility, meaning their uterus is not functioning or is nonexistent, undergo operations to have a womb transplant.
Dr. Goran Klintmalm who is leading the team said, "we will now apply what we have learned all these years to Uterus transplantation."
The idea comes from a group of doctors in Sweden who have already performed 5 successful live births from 7 different patients.
Baylor hope their program which they are considering a "Pilot" and the first ever in their history will be just as successful.
While transplantation would be historic, Dr. Göran Klintmalm made it clear that, "The success is not a transplant. The success is the birth of a healthy baby."
Dr. Giuliano Testa added, "at the end it will benefit many women who today don't have access to carry their own pregnancies."
Speaking about the possibilities, Dr. Colin Koon said, "I'm a cancer surgeon. I remove uteruses with cancer. It's a tremendous opportunity for many of my patients."
The procedure will begin by harvesting a candidates eggs and fertilizing them. Next, the woman will receive the uterine transplant from a living or recently deceased donor. After about a year of closely monitoring the transplant, and if they uterus proves to be healthy then the woman will have her previously fertilized eggs introduced into her newly transplanted uterus. Doctors say at that point barring any complication the woman would be able to have a full term pregnancy.
Baylor is currently seeking candidates for their trial. They say there are strict criteria and not every woman will qualify. At the lvery least they say she will have to have an AUI diagnosis and be between 20 and 35 years old.
The first baby born as a result of this procedure at Baylor is expected sometime in late 2017.
Ken Molestina contributed to this report
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