Johannesburg - Will men ever be able to give birth?
That’s the question raised by last week’s announcement that the Cleveland Clinic is performing uterus transplant surgery on women who were born without a womb or whose uterus is diseased or malfunctioning.
If science can transplant a uterus into a woman, can it transplant one into a man?
The answer is yes. Theoretically, men could receive a uterus, carry a baby to term, and give birth.
Speaking to Yahoo! about the likelihood of female-to-male womb transplants, a leading fertility doctor estimates it could be “five or 10 years away, maybe sooner”.
Dr Karine Chung, director of the fertility preservation programme at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, listed some of the challenges already solved when it comes to helping someone born a biological male become pregnant. Hormone therapy can prepare the body for pregnancy, creating essential hormones like progesterone and testosterone. Arteries can be construed to supply the uterus with blood and alternate ligaments to those found in biological women can be used to support it.
Still, given a successful transplant, an expectant mother would have to take anti-rejection drugs throughout the pregnancy to ensure her body doesn’t reject the foetus, but as Yahoo notes: “for many [trans women] the risk is worth the reward”.
The biggest obstacle after a transplant would be implanting an in-vitro grown embryo to the new womb. Usually done via the natural cervix, it would likely require the surgically constructed vagina to be connected to the uterus – something that has never been attempted but which according to some plastic surgeons “is theoretically not a major surgical feat”.
IOL