A Barcelona hospital announced on Monday the birth of the first baby in Spain to a woman with a transplanted uterus, which was donated to her by her sister.
The baby, named Jesus, was presented today to the media at the Hospital Clínic in the Catalan capital, where the entire process was carried out, for purely reproductive purposes, from the transplant to the pregnancy and the birth of the child.
The mother, Tamara Franco, 34, suffered from a congenital disease, since she was born without a uterus or fallopian tubes, but with ovaries.
In October 2020, she underwent a 20-hour surgery to transplant the uterus donated by her sister.
The next goal was for her to get pregnant, something that was achieved last September, and due to some complications in the pregnancy, they gave birth to her at seven months.
Once the entire process is complete and since the uterus essentially has a reproductive function, the next step will be to remove the transplanted organ from the patient to avoid having to take medication to avoid rejection, reported the medical team at the Hospital Clínic.
This is the first birth through this procedure in Spain, but there are already more than 100 uterine transplants and more than 50 children who have been born by this technique in the world, according to the head of the Clinic’s Gynecology Service, Francisco Carmona.
Carmona pointed out that these figures “give an idea of the tremendous success of this technique”, that could be applied for other indications.