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First Uterine Transplant in the U.S.: Lessons Learned

— Surgeon Tommaso Falcone, MD, says interdisciplinary team was essential

Last Updated March 9, 2016
MedpageToday

On Feb. 24, surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic performed a uterus transplant on a 26-year-old woman with primary uterine insufficiency. A donor uterus was removed from a deceased woman of reproductive age and transplanted into the patient. Overall, the procedure took 9 hours to complete. The patient and her transplant team went public on Monday.

In preparation for the uterine transplant, the patient underwent multiple cycles of IVF to produce embryos -- enough to ensure 6-10 blastocysts (mature embryos). The patient's doctors will wait 1 year before implanting embryos, and should the pregnancy be carried to term, the patient will be delivered by cesarean section.

In this video, Cleveland Clinic gynecologic surgeon , who was part of the transplant team, discusses the procedure and explains why other options, such as surrogacy, may not be a choice for some women. He also offers some advice for clinicians who might try this procedure in the future.