Dive Brief:
- Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic removed a transplanted uterus from a 26-year-old woman after she suffered sudden complications.
- The announcement comes less than a month after the transplant and just days after the clinic introduced the woman to the public amid fanfare.
- This was the first uterus transplant in the U.S., and is part of a larger study that will include 10 carefully screened women.
Dive Insight:
Doctors didn’t say what caused the complications and are looking at a range of possible factors, USA reported. All transplants carry the risk of rejection, and there can be complications related to the procedure itself as well.
It was also not clear if the woman, named Lindsay, would be eligible for a second transplant. The clinic plans to continue screening women for the study.
The world’s first uterus transplant took place in Sweden in 2013, and the recipient gave birth to a healthy baby boy in October 2014. Unlike Lindsay’s case, which involved a deceased donor, the Swedish woman received her uterus from a post-menopausal woman who had previously given birth and agree to donate her organ.
Roughly one in 5,000 women is born without a uterus. Others acquire uterine factor infertility — or abnormalities of the uterus —following a severe pelvic infection or hysterectomy.