First uterus transplant in France: the baby of hope is born

She came into the world on Friday February 12 at the Foch hospital in Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine).

A baby so desired that he was conceived through boundless love coupled with saving medical prowess in these gloomy times.

For the first time in France, a woman, born without a uterus, gave birth to her child, two years after having been able to benefit from a transplant of this reproductive organ.

Six days after having uttered his first cries, the "baby of hope" is doing wonderfully, despite his small weight of 1.845 kg.

36 years ago, Deborah, her mother, was born with a total absence of a uterus.

Blame it on a rare congenital disease with a complicated name: Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH, often simplified by Rokitansky syndrome).

“It affects one in 4,500 women, that's no small feat.

Many will risk being in great suffering, especially as adoption is more and more complicated, ”says Professor Michel Tournaire, a gynecologist who is familiar with this disease.

After years of research and boosted by Sweden, the pioneer country which has been practicing it since October 2014, France has become interested in uterine transplantation.

At the Foch hospital, the team of Professor Jean-Marc Ayoubi, the emblematic head of the obstetric gynecology department, is in the line.

In June 2018, the doctors obtained a first sesame: the authorization to take a sample from a living donor.

The uterus is that of the patient's mother

It's done, March 31, 2019. That Sunday, the “selected” patient is operated.

The transplant is performed with the uterus of her own mother, a healthy 57-year-old postmenopausal woman.

The organ was removed thanks to robotic surgery.

And was then implanted to his daughter.

To embark on the adventure of life, the young transplant recipient must wait several months, at least ten, say the doctors.

You have to be sure that everything goes well before the transfer of embryos, which have been frozen.

It is finally in 2020 that the desired pregnancy will come.

As for women with MRKH, to which must be added those who have had the uterus removed, after cancer for example - a total of several tens of thousands of women - this transplant is the only chance to procreate naturally.

The alternative is adoption, or surrogacy (surrogacy), which is prohibited in France.

This Friday, the little girl joins the twenty or so children born after a uterine transplant, in Sweden, the United States, Brazil, India… And now, in France.