In August of 2011, Akdeniz University Hospital physicians conducted a uterus transplant experiment on a young patient, Derya Sert, who did not have a uterus and was unable to become pregnant.
The Physician in Chief of the hospital, Professor Mustafa Ünal, and the Head Physician of the Reconstructive and Plastic Operations Department, Professor Ömer Özkan, were the lead surgeons who conducted the experiment.
Akdeniz University is a college in Antalya Province of Turkey and is one of the leading higher education establishments and scientific research centers of the West Mediterranean region of Turkey. The research center has performed several other different body tissue transplant experiments similar to the one in this case in the past.
This particular operation was done on a 23-year-old patient who wasn’t able to become pregnant due to the fact that she didn’t have a uterus.
With this experiment, the doctors transplanted the uterus of a cadaver to Mrs. Sert in August 2011 in an operation that took 7 hours from start to finish. It is the first transplant of its type in the world in that it is the first time a patient has received the uterus from a deceased donor.
Recently, on April 2, 2013, the physicians transferred an embryo to the uterus. The pregnancy confirmed healthy on April 12 and, for over 7 weeks, the woman was able to keep the pregnancy in her transplanted womb. However, during Week 8, the baby’s heartbeat ceased and the doctors were forced to terminate the pregnancy. “Derya Sert, the patient, is well and resting at home” the surgeons said, and added, “with the experiment, we understood that the transplanted uterus was able to function. We confidently say that because we heard the baby’s heartbeat. We plan to continue this type of experiment a few more times.”
As lay people we understand that it is important to experiment to see if a woman can become pregnant with a transplanted uterus. This is an unprecedented trial containing human subject research, which is what makes it so significant. Both the doctors and the patients must agree on the results, whether they are positive or negative.
The Turkish version of the uterus transplant news may be found at Milliyet Gazetesi.
Bilimsel merakı tatmin dışında, bu “rahim transplantasyon” deneyinin nüfusu patlayan insanlık için olumlu yanını göremiyorum. Biz “kadın başına 1 çocuk olsun, nüfus mutlaka azalsın” isterken doğumu destekleyici nitelikteki bilimsel gayretlere ne demeli bilmiyorum; umarım ameliyat “başarılı” genç kadın da “mutlu bir anne” olur.
Dünya nüfusu 7 milyarı aştı, 2050 lerde 10 milyara doğru gidiyor. Hergün 210 bin kişi artıyor. Türkiyenin nüfusu da hergün 3 bin yılda 1 milyon artıyor, şu anda 83 milyona dayandı (TUIK in verdiği 75 milyon yanlış!) Su, enerji, çevre, besin, sağlık vs. konular göz önüne alındığında (tabii diğer önlemlerin yanında) Nüfusun azaltılması mutlaka gerekli. Nüfus bu hızla artarsa, zaman gelir, tıklım tıkış dolan hastanelerde bırakın ameliyat yapmayı, nefes bile alamazlar doktorlarımız.. Sevgi ve saygılarıla. æ
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