U.K. first womb transplant

[VestaTilley]

The BBC has reported today that the first womb transplant has taken place in a hospital in England. A 40 year old woman donated her womb to her sister, hopefully enabling her to have children.

AIBU to be concerned about a potential dystopian future where women’s reproductive organs are harvested like car parts?

Journalists are treating this like it’s a positive, with few questions being asked about how the donor is recovering, how the foetus (if the recipient does conceive) will fare if the woman has to continue taking immuno suppressive drugs? Whether there is increased miscarriage risk?

Transplants are supposed to be life saving, not about wish fulfilment. Apparently 10 brain dead women are being lined up for future donation!

To me this all seems part of a bigger picture of surrogacy, synthetic embryo creation (reported earlier this year) and a drive to disassociate women from reproduction and the biology of our sex.

Am I alone in being bothered by this? I wish journalists would look more at the bigger societal picture.

Link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66514270

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

I've already heard talk of women's wombs being transplanted into transgender identifying men so it's worrying.

My youngest was born at 31 weeks and weighed 3lb 10oz and she has none of the conditions mentioned.

@MrsSkylerWhite the article said it was privately funded and the surgeons all gave their time for free. No nhs money was used.

What’s the betting that young Women who ‘believe’ they are actually Men will have to hand over their Uteri before starting ‘T’ treatment? That’s the logical ( and horrific) next step, I bet they have it all planned out ( they being the Mengele-level Gender experts).
I think all previous succesful transplants have been from family members to Women with functioning ovaries, protocols dictate they have to have 6 menstrual cycles before attemping pregnancy.

not in so many words

On one hand OP I can see why you would be concerned re: women's organs being harvested etc, but on the other hand (and having been a nurse and had direct experience of organ transplantation) I don't feel overly concerned because:

1. Any organ transplant is not just a 'plug and play' set up. Huge amounts of immunosuppressant drugs have to taken for life which is why cancers are more common in transplant patients. I have seen many a transplant organ removed a few years down the line because of cancer.
2. Personal/family approval in writing has to be given prior to any transplant surgery. This is quite rightly taken very seriously.
3. Anyone worried about transplanting a uterus into a man - the chances of this working and then actually functioning in any way are so remote it's not worth worrying about. Men, no matter how many hormones they take and how much they have the 'feels' about being a woman do not have a functioning female endocrine system, because they are men. It's not just about suppressing testosterone and raising oestrogen and hey ho you are a woman. The female endocrine system is much more complex than that. I don't doubt someone will try it sooner or later though no matter how unwise and unethical it is.

I think organ donation (either live or cadaver) can literally be a life saver despite the risks and I think it is a good thing but I do question whether doing it when it isn't a vital organ is moral. Unfortunately life isn't fair but in healthcare often money talks.

First thing I thought. This is just the beta stage!

Totally. Whilst it may be a medical feat and impressive from that perspective, it seems a step in the wrong direction.

No, I've not been able to have children. I don't see being able to have children as a right. Just as I don't see having sex as a right, or sight or hearing as a right. What next? Women who don't want children but have working reproductive systems being required to bear children for those who can't conceive themselves? Why not? Easier, cheaper and less dangerous than tinkering with wombs.

And then off we go into Handmaid's Tale territory.

Transplants are supposed to be life saving, not about wish fulfilment.

So your against hand transplants for kids who have lost their hands? Face transplants for the completely disfigured? You want to ban research into eye transplants for blind people? None of this 'saves lives'.

The woman was born with Type 1 Mayer -Rokitansky , she had no uterus, if you deny her a chance to be a mum, I'm guessing you're against all forms of IVF. Besides this wasn't on the NHS and essentially part of research which doctors with PhD's like to do to

Surrogacy has been around since the bible for fucks sake and its still mostly women having babies for other women, like always.

Synthetic embryo creation means we don't have to use REAL ONES FOR RESEARCH and potentially save millions of children lives. No nation is going to sanction creating lives from them unless we all become sterlie, even if it was viable.

Knee jerk reactions from people who think 'we're playing God' but in the same breath would want doctors to bend the limits of medicine to save their loved ones if God forbid anything happens to them.

I'm on the register donating everything, I don't care, I'll be dead. But I'm pretty sure there was the option to tick what you did/didn't want to donate when I joined 15 ish years ago.

For that reason, I don't really think the '10 braindead women' should be put forward when they can't explicitly consent.

And there's a level of emotional manipulation, even if it's not deliberate between a living transplant like these sisters which I don't think is ethical.

How though? They don't have the plumbing? They don't have the structure there is a laundry list of things that womens bodies do that mens cannot

Funnily enough this news came out just as I received a letter confirming my removal from the register. I doubt I'm the only one, it was big on twitter a few months back.

This is going to reduce the amount of organs available until the register get wise and put an opt out for the womb and other sex specific organs.

So you refuse any medical treatment when you're ill then 😂Need a procedure to save your sight, you'll respond , 'My sight isn't a right, so fate of the Gods has decided for me to be blind, so be it'.....Yeah right.

the article said it was privately funded and the surgeons all gave their time for free. No nhs money was used

@longtompot This time, yes. But in future ........ ?

I have to wait 2 weeks to see a GP, are you seriously suggesting the NHS will offer this anytime soon? You can't even get cancer treatment in some parts of the country!

'Prof Smith, who is Chairman of Womb Transplant UK, said the team had been authorised to carry out a total of 15 transplants - five with live donors and 10 with deceased, brain-dead donors'

What the FUCK?

I took my name off the donor register a few years back, partly because of exactly this type of risk. If you don't, consent is assumed.

https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/

They had people on sky news this morning going on about how great it is and how it could be used to help trans women “give birth naturally” - males can’t give birth, aren’ we’re doing a disservice to give them hope otherwise. I’ll be opting out of organ donation this afternoon

This is the reason I'm not on the donor register. DH knows they can have heart, lungs, kidneys, corneas etc. but nothing else.

When I saw this reported on BBC this morning, I found it chilling. I was disturbed by the cheery and upbeat way it was reported, even having an infertile woman on to discuss her hope for getting onto a waiting list for the surgery. There was little effort to balance the argument of the ethical issues around this, just what a "good news" story it was. Offering hope where they shouldn't be, as its very unlikely that this will become a easily available option for infertility any time soon. Aside from the moral question about this, there are huge risks involved with this type of surgery for the donor and recipient. It appears to be high risk to carry a pregnancy after transplant, and what are the side effects of immunosuppressive drugs on the developing foetus?
Like many others on here I am disturbed about reducing women to body parts, and where this leads us in the future.
Individual's wants and feelings should not be prioritised over moral and ethical medicine practice. I feel awful for someone experiencing infertility, but putting other people at risk to achieve what you want is morally wrong. Wouldn't this money be better used improving women's health care, for example earlier cancer screening, better cancer care, and investigating and developing better treatment and care for infertility and recurrent miscarriage etc?

In the words of the infamous Dr Ian Malcolm:

“Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.”

This is precisely why I am not an organ donor.

I'm sure that if this were the 17th century they would be horrified at the thought of a heart transplant, on religious and societal grounds.

Now a days it's an accepted part of our medical arsenal.
Much like today where I know many people opt out of corneal retrieval.

Science has its frontiers and this is one.

I'm lucky enough to have had two healthy pregnancies resulting in two perfect children.

Who am I to deny that to another woman.

It has not used NHS resources.
It is completely consensual and I wish these women nothing but luck for the future.

As for the organ trafficking argument, what does it matter if they're grabbing people off the streets for kidneys or wombs, the problem is still the same.

'Ours is not to reason why: ours is but to do or die'

When I went on the register years ago I asked whether the list of organs would be updated as time went on and whether potential donors would be told of this if they'd ticked all. I was told no so came off the register.

The disturbing thing with all this is that the only successful live birth via a uterus being transplanted into a male (rat) involved attaching the male rat to a female rat in a parasitic relationship for the duration of the pregnancy.

Very messed up that anyone is even considering this as a possibility for humans.

As an organ recipient, who would not be alive today without donation, I would just ask that anyone considering removing themselves from the donor register because of this to discuss it with the donor register and their family. There is an option to select what you donate I.e. heat only etc which would possibly solve this specific issue for you.

i firmly believe that organ donation is a gift and a choice (either way) and should not be judged BUT, please make you family aware of your wishes so that they can fulfil them knowing what you want… don’t leave them with difficult decisions and possible regrets because of not knowing what your wishes are (whatever they are) at a difficult time for them.