(CNN)For the first time, a baby has been born to a woman who received a uterus transplant from a deceased donor, according to Hospital das Clínicas at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine in Brazil.
The uterus or womb, which is shaped like a topsy-turvy pear and sits within the pelvis, is a female reproductive organ that houses and nourishes the fetus until birth. At least a dozen children in Sweden, the United States and Serbia have been born to women with transplanted uteri donated by a living relative, noted the authors of the study, which was published Tuesday in the medical journal The Lancet.
“The results provide proof-of-concept for a new treatment option for absolute uterine factor infertility,” wrote co-authors Dr. Dani Ejzenberg, an ob/gyn at the University of Sao Paulo and Hospital das Clínicas in Brazil, and Dr. Wellington Andraus, a transplant surgeon at the Sao Paulo University School of Medicine in the study. Less than 5% of women worldwide have some type of “absolute uterine factor infertility,” in which an abnormality of the womb interferes with fetal development.
