A 22-year-old woman in Turkey is now pregant after receiving a transplanted uterus, according to an Associated Press report.
The woman, Derya Sert, was born without a uterus, received a tranplanted organ in August 2011 and is now six weeks along in a "healthy" pregnancy, the report said. Doctors placed an embryo that was made using Sert's own egg cell into her uterus in March.
Dr. Andreas Tzakis, director of the transplant program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, spoke with MyHealthNewsDaily about uterine transplants in 2011.
The surgery is challenging, Tzakis said. The transplanted uterus needs to be connected properly to the body's veins and arteries to ensure an adequate blood supply reaches the organ. What's more, the organ's position deep in the pelvis makes it difficult to access. It needs to be placed in the correct position to function in reproduction, he said.
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