https://nationalpost.com/health/womb-transplants-transgender-women

  • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]B
    ·
    2 years ago

    Is this actually in the cards to do safely? Would be very cool, if so. When you get a transplant, you have to go on immune suppressors because otherwise your body starts to fight it like a foreign body. I wonder how much that complicates things.

    Anyways don't mean to be a Danny Downer. Love my trans comrades.

    • Azarova [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      There's lots of reactionary pearl clutching in the article but there's this excerpt which I found interesting (emphasis mine):

      Normally, uterus transplants are temporary, the organs removed after a maximum of two children, so that women don’t have to stay on anti-rejection drugs for life. But some trans women, write the authors of the Fertility and Sterility editorial, may wish to keep their transplanted uterus indefinitely for “enhanced gender alignment.” The risk-benefit ratio, they said, “is unclear and potentially worrisome.”

      Multiple attempted transplants have failed after the woman’s body rejected the donor uterus. “People have lost circulation in their legs and had to have the uterus removed so they didn’t lose their legs,” Quinn said. “There have been a lot of adverse outcomes that the public doesn’t know about.”

      It seems to indicate that permanant transplantation of a womb, cis or trans, has still not been solved, but skimming the article seems to suggest that at least the temporary option is feasible for trans women.

      • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]B
        ·
        2 years ago

        That's very good news!

        I tend to get worried about any new procedure for a marginalized group because our systems structurally underfund their study. On the other hand, if a country like Cuba starts doing it I relax a bit, because they do at least try to combat this bias.

        • LaughingLion [any, any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          my cisgendered mom had to have her uterus removed after 2 kids due to medical reasons that arent that uncommon so honestly that solution isnt really "un-womanly" (i have no idea what term to use here)

    • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Ciswomen have had womb transplants. They have even delivered a healthy child, back in 2014.

      • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]B
        ·
        2 years ago

        Glad to hear it! My worry comes from how our societies structurally underfund health research that impacts marginalized groups. I've seen, for example, what AFAB/women's health (for lack of knowing a better term, as it's in the orbit of trans men, nonbinary folks, trans women, and cis women) research centers have to do and how they are reached out to for studies and... shit is bleak. Doing basic longitudinal studies that were already done on college-aged dudes because it turns out X drug might be disabling non-college-afed dudes, that sort of thing.

        In a fair society this would already be well-known to be safe and ubiquitous.