Do you wish you could have your own kids???

[Brenda]

This has been a massive wish that I have had for eons, for at least 4/5ths of my life, (strange thing to say knowing my real age,) and truthfully I can not await the time for it to come when it can become an everyday occurrence.

It suprises me that, to my knowledge, it has not been attempted for the TS/TG community, with all the females who were organ donors that have passed on, why couldn’t the doctors speak to each other and attempt to introduce the implantation of female gyneological organs into TS’s, and we know there are numerous of us out here! 😉

Many thanks Anee for bringing this topic to the fore.

[Anonymous]

Yes I totally argee, I don’t see why it can’t be done, surgeons can do just about anything nowadays …

Its just a long hard winding road knowing that your female and never be able to have kids …. trust me, I’ve cried over it many times before ..

but anyway, can’t dwell on what can’t happen ….

[Anonymous]

I too have had this dream, to be able to get pregnant and have a baby of my own, who knows, whit the way medical science is going, with transplants, stem-cell and cloning research, it way be possible to have a complete set of operational female sex organs transplanted into a Male to Female transsexuals as-well as a full set operational male sex organs for female to male transsexuals, don’t know when it will happen but the possibility is there

Hugs, Sharon

[Anonymous]

Quote:

Im here just expressing my feelings about having my own kids… Not though my partner ..

You certainly are not alone, but age and current technology will rule this out for me almost entirely. Besides I have two wonderful daughters of my own (18 & 14) and have been the single parent. So, besides the 9 months of carrying the baby I have done everything else any mother would, laughing, crying, bursting with pride, feeling their pain and celebrating their successes.

I count myself as a lucky and fortunate person for having had my children, and yet the longer I am on hormones the more the question goes round in my head. I guess it is just a girl thing.

Cathii

[Anonymous]

*Warning – Long post, with some personal opinions, and scientific gabble, as well as difficult ethical considerations. If you are sensitive about Cloning, Stem Cells or the like, please skip that section, I don’t want to anger anyone.*

It may surprise you that the issue has in fact been raised, for about 20 years.

Transplantation of a uterus is generally considered to not be a viable option. There are several reasons for this:

– Rejection: When you transplant an organ, the “host” body tries and combats it, like any other foreign object in the body (bacteria, viruses, dirt, cigarette smoke, etc.). It is very good at it. We treat it with immunosuppressants (below). Pregnancy is also a complicated state, in that for some reason (which doctors don’t understand) the mother does not reject the foetus, despite being presented with ample opportunity to.
(As a side note, in some cases, some rejection does occur, such as “rhesus isoimmunisation” – with severe consequences for the foetus)
Rejection is inevitable, and different organs last for different times. as a general rule, the more vascular (lungs, kidneys, and possibly a uterus), the quicker the rejection – lung transplants still have about 50% mortality within a year, and more than 75% in 5 years. (This is with immunosuppressants)
Rejection is reduced somewhat by matching various markers, including blood type and “HLA” type. Even your close relatives are unlikely to have exactly the same HLA type. Usually it is about a 25% chance that a sibling will have the same HLA, and rare that parents will have the same.

– Immunosuppressants: These are drugs that prevent the rejection, although they don’t work forever, particularly in a vascular organ such as a gravid uterus. An added problem is that they are all very teratogenic – they cause serious birth defects – think thalidomide babies, and you’ve got the picture (sort-of). They are what let us postpone rejection, but if we don’t give them, rejection acts fairly quickly.

– Neurology: Transplanted organs do not have a nerve supply from the rest of the body. This is important in a uterus, because it helps keep it from contracting during the pregnancy, as well as letting you know when it is contracting, and telling you if there’s any impending harm to the foetus.

– Vascular Supply: That is, the blood vessels. By the 10th week of pregnancy, the placenta goes through approximately 1.4 liters of blood a minute. That’s almost a third of your total heart output. In a phenotypical male there are no appropriate arteries to connect to that would supply this much, in phenotypical females the uterine arteries arise from the internal iliac artery – and there is no male equivalent. You would need a fairly tricky graft from somewhere else to connect it

– Hormones: the hormonal state in pregnancy is very complicated. Even the normal female body does not always get it right. When it’s mucked up, the pregnancy fails (miscarriage) and if it’s not balanced, the foetus can end up with problems ranging from thyroid, to gender, to sex determination problems, as well as a variety of others. There is a complex interplay between the pituitary gland (hormone controlling gland of the brain) and the ovaries and placenta, which changes over the course of the pregnancy.
It would be hard to find an endocrinologist with the guts or skill, let alone time, to take this problem on. It MIGHT be solved by also transplanting ovaries – but that runs into one of the less practical but no less important issues; Law and Ethics

– Law and Ethics: Currently there is a variety of laws that govern transplant of “medical tissue”. A uterus and ovaries would be considered “non-regenerating” tissue. This causes quite a few issues; basically, it could not be legally donated by a live donor. Thus, it would have to be a cadaveric donor – either cold or warm – and part of a national scheme. It would require people consenting to it – both at an individual level and a government level (and we all know how likely that is… *cough* Tony Abbot *cough*).The laws also currently require that a transplant be lifesaving – which it would rarely be. If it was allowed, natal females would probably be first in line, if they have lost a uterus to trauma.
Ethically, there is a particular issue with the transplantation of ovaries – and thus, inheritable genetic material. Although it is undeniable that the children produced would be “their parents'” by nurture, at least one parent would miss out on parentage by nurture. It would be unclear if it fell under the role of surrogacy or donor eggs in IVF.

So basically, donor uteri and ovaries are unlikely to happen – ever. That is not cause to give up hope, though. There are several other options that should be explored both presently and in the future.

Addendum: one rare situation would be if there was an FtM undergoing a hysterectomy with the same HLA and blood type as you, which might be an option. You would have to go through the courts

Surrogacy.
Currently semi-illegal in Australia, it is however legal in America, and quite possible. It involves IVF implantation of an embryo into another woman. The source of this embryo is usually the original parents; however, some surrogate mothers might allow their own eggs to be used. This, or a donated egg, would be required in the case of an MtF in a heterosexual relationship; in a homosexual (lesbian) relationship, if the MtF stored sperm prior to hormone treatment (which, btw, I highly recommend), the embryo could be genetically theirs. In this case, it would however be more practical to have an IVF baby with their partner.
IVF is legal for lesbian couples in Victoria. Monash IVF is quite supportive, although not loudly, about this state of affairs.

Abdominal Pregnancy
The theory about possible abdominal pregnancy arises from the VERY rare occurrences of successful abdominal ectopic pregnancies in natal women. Ectopic pregnancies happen in 3 / 100 pregnancies; of ectopic pregnancies, 97% are somewhere in the tube; 2% on the ovary, and 1% elsewhere. About 99% of these ectopic pregnancies end in miscarriages – and are an obstetric emergency. Problems come form inadequate space to grow in (the tube) or inadequate blood supply (abdomen, ovaries) or from susceptibility to trauma. They are also incredibly painful, even the “successful” ones – and would require a modified caesarean section delivery, with all its attendant risks to mother and baby.
The possibility of inducing an abdominal pregnancy, where the embryo is implanted in bowel, has been suggested for over 20 years, mostly about the possibility in males, or women who have had a hysterectomy. However, Transsexual women approached early IVF centers as early as 1989. To date, it has been considered too great a risk to mother and baby, and embryos are special and rare things, whether you ascribe humanity to them or not.
Animal studies have not been conducted, and would certainly be required prior to any human experiment.

Stem Cell Research and the Autologous Transplant
Stem cell research is possibly the most promising area which transsexuals should be interested in; both MtF and FtM. I believe that hollow organs such as the bladder have already been grown purely from cloned animal stem cells.
As a germ line organ, and simple in structure, Ovaries would also be a viable target for growing using stem cell technology. The main problem would be in growing the vascular supply, as has already been discovered in Australia in growing kidneys.
For growing a viable Ovary from an XY karyotype; this would involve the blocking of the SRY gene, or creating a knockout version. The problem with this, is that only half of the eggs produced would be viable (a 46 YY karyotype is unviable – you need at least X [which is a girl with Turner’s syndrome] and preferably an XY or XX), and thus likely to need to be screened via an IVF programme. That would not, however stop the recipient from having a menstrual cycle, should the pituitary and hypothalamus of the brain switch to the female cycle of organs (and there is not any evidence for or against this; it is theorised that it should happen).
Another possibility is the modification of the genome of the stem cell generated organs by the removal of the Y chromosome and addition of an X. This would require research as to its effects. There is also the problem that some genes are modified by whether they come from the donating Mother or Father (such as Angelmann’s syndrome and Prader-Willi Syndrome) which is not well understood, and would have to be analysed.

The creation of testis and sperm for the FtM would be slightly more complicated, in that the Testis is a more complicated organ than the ovary; and a Y chromosome is required for the process to happen (differentiation can occur if you put in the right chemicals (those made by the SRY gene), however the sperm don’t grow properly)

Theoretically there should be no rejection of Autologous transplant tissue: however, your immune system may not recognise tissue that you did not have by the time it was developing (i.e. middle-late gestation and childhood) so I believe rejection is still possible.

The growing of organs from stem cells requires a supply of stem cells with the same genes as the host. this is currently only possible with either the destruction of an existing embryo (ala Dolly the Sheep) or the creation of a pseudo-egg, such as what the Monash Stem Cell research centre has been looking into, and implanting the DNA into that. This is why Cloning and Stem cell research are such contentious issues – they are intricately intertwined with the creation and destruction of viable embryos – and why more research is needed into ethical ways to use the technology

Summary:
Pregnancy in the MtF is theoretically currently possibly through an abdominal pregnancy with hormonal support. This however is fraught with danger, and not likely to be a fruitful avenue to explore.

Transplantation of another woman’s reproductive system has several serious flaws that would need addressing, and is unlikely to happen without a social revolution

Stem Cell research is possibly the most promising avenue of research, and ethical research would need to be encouraged far more than is currently possible in Australia and overseas. My bet would be on Australian researches, as we have some of the best minds and facilities, despite some of the most stringent laws. They are already tackling kidneys – if you see that they are able to achieve that, then an ovary is not far away.

Sincerely,
Lauren

*Sorry for the long post*

[Anonymous]

no, thankyou for the long post, its good info ..

love, anee .

[Anonymous]

Quote:

I believe that hollow organs such as the bladder have already been grown purely from cloned animal stem cells.

Saw Beyond Tomorrow on Wed night, and somewhere in America they had not only grown but implanted a bladder into a human from her own cells. So things are moving fast.

I can see that much more complicated organs will be on the list of development before the uterus and ovaries however. Lets be realistic, heart valves, arterial tissue and other such body “spares” will be of more scientific and medical use.

I don’t doubt that the day will come where it is possible but by then I will have either long since had my opereration or maybe have passed away. Maybe 3 generations down the track it will be possible and I will envy those lucky people.

Quote:

*Sorry for the long post*

Thank you for the long post, I learnt quite a few things today, now I am off to google to find out some more!

Cathii