{"id":3495,"date":"2019-03-05T16:29:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T15:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=3495"},"modified":"2019-03-05T16:29:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T15:29:31","slug":"reimagining-uterus-transplantation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2019\/03\/05\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\/","title":{"rendered":"Reimagining Uterus Transplantation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Amani Sampson,\u00a0Laura Kimberly<span style=\"color: #333333\"><span style=\"font-size: 12px\">,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Kara Goldman, David Keefe, and\u00a0Gwendolyn Quinn.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In 1931, a transgender woman named Lili Elbe received the first known uterus transplant in a human. Unfortunately, she died from organ rejection complications three months later. Her story is often missing from the emerging ethical discourse surrounding uterus transplantation.<\/p>\n<p>Our interest in exploring how uterus transplantation could become an option for all women regardless of genetics came from stories like Lili\u2019s and our review of current media where these questions have surfaced. We began drafting our <a href=\"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2019\/02\/25\/medethics-2018-105222\">paper<\/a> planning to focus on transgender women but then realized there were also other women facing uterine factor infertility left out of the conversation around uterus transplantation, such as women with complete androgen insufficiency. In 2016, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0301211516308752\">Huet and colleagues<\/a> conducted a study of the characteristics of those seeking uterus transplantation in France and found that a small percentage of women with complete androgen insufficiency inquired about the possibility of receiving a uterus.\u00a0Transgender women and women with CAIS both share XY genetic makeup, which prevents them from participating in all current uterus transplantation trials.<\/p>\n<p>Since the announcement of the first live birth from uterus transplantation in 2014, transgender women have taken to popular media to advocate for being considered for uterus transplantation. Less has been heard in the media from women with CAIS. Articles such as these in in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2016\/03\/07\/uterine-transplant-transgender\/\">Stat<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guernicamag.com\/mother-science\/\">Guernica\u00a0<\/a>interview transwomen who desire pregnancy. One quote that struck us from a young transwoman speaking to Guernica was: \u201cI don\u2019t feel very different from a cis (sic) woman who is infertile, I just don\u2019t have a uterus or eggs.\u201d In many ways, these women\u2019s comments mirror those of women currently in uterus transplantation trials. We hope our <a href=\"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2019\/02\/25\/medethics-2018-105222\">paper<\/a> will serve as a call to action for more research to expand the field of uterus transplantation to all women facing uterine factor infertility.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paper title<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2019\/02\/25\/medethics-2018-105222\">Uterus transplantation in women who are genetically XY<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Author(s):\u00a0<\/strong>Amani Sampson<sup><span style=\"font-size: 9.0pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;color: #333333\">1<\/span><\/sup>, Laura L. Kimberly<sup><span style=\"font-size: 9.0pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;color: #333333\">2, 3<\/span><\/sup> Kara N. Goldman<sup><span style=\"font-size: 9.0pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;color: #333333\">1<\/span><\/sup>, David L. Keefe<sup><span style=\"font-size: 9.0pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;color: #333333\">1<\/span><\/sup>, Gwendolyn P. Quinn<sup><span style=\"font-size: 9.0pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;color: #333333\">1,3<\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>Affiliations:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><sup>1<\/sup>\u00a0Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, New York University School of Medicine, New York City, New York, USA<\/p>\n<p><sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0Hansj\u00f6rg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York City, New York, USA<\/p>\n<p><sup>3<\/sup>\u00a0Division of Medical Ethics, Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York City, New York, USA<\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong> None<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Amani Sampson,\u00a0Laura Kimberly,\u00a0Kara Goldman, David Keefe, and\u00a0Gwendolyn Quinn. In 1931, a transgender woman named Lili Elbe received the first known uterus transplant in a human. Unfortunately, she died from organ rejection complications three months later. Her story is often missing from the emerging ethical discourse surrounding uterus transplantation. Our interest in exploring how uterus [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2019\/03\/05\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2022,7970],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reproduction","category-transplantation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Reimagining Uterus Transplantation - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2019\/03\/05\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reimagining Uterus Transplantation - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Amani Sampson,\u00a0Laura Kimberly,\u00a0Kara Goldman, David Keefe, and\u00a0Gwendolyn Quinn. In 1931, a transgender woman named Lili Elbe received the first known uterus transplant in a human. Unfortunately, she died from organ rejection complications three months later. Her story is often missing from the emerging ethical discourse surrounding uterus transplantation. Our interest in exploring how uterus [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2019\/03\/05\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-05T15:29:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hazem Zohny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hazem Zohny\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/05\\\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/05\\\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hazem Zohny\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e73152f6aa4e164c7d625d77cf4fed35\"},\"headline\":\"Reimagining Uterus Transplantation\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-05T15:29:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/05\\\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":405,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Reproduction\",\"Transplantation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/05\\\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/05\\\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/05\\\/reimagining-uterus-transplantation\\\/\",\"name\":\"Reimagining Uterus Transplantation - 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