Woman With First Uteran Transplant Is Pregnant - East Idaho News
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Woman With First Uteran Transplant Is Pregnant

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Getty 041513 PregnantWoman?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1366070136264George Doyle/Thinkstock(ISTANBUL, Turkey) — The first woman to receive a uterus from a dead donor is now pregnant, her doctors announced in Turkey.

Doctors waited 18 months after Derya Sert’s uterus transplant in August 2011 before they implanted an embryo on April 1 using Sert’s own egg.  Sert, a 22-year-old homemaker, is now about two weeks pregnant, her doctors at Akdeniz University Hospital in Antalya announced Friday.

 “She is doing just fine at the moment,” Dr. Mustafa Unal said in a written statement to Agence France-Presse. The baby will be born via Cesarean section, according to the news agency.

Sert was born without a uterus, but her ovaries were intact, according to a hospital press release. The condition affects one in 5,000 women, according to the hospital.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a senior medical contributor at ABC News, said doctors could detect the pregnancy early by closely monitoring the pregnancy hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, in in-vitro fertilization patients.

Although Sert’s ovaries provide hormones, she may need additional “hormonal support,” Ashton said, but it’s not exactly clear what Sert can expect in the coming months.

“Since there is scant medical literature on this, the risks for pregnancies is unknown,” she said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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