For women without a uterus, because they were born that way or because they had surgery to remove it, getting pregnant may soon be an option in the US.
The Cleveland Clinic is planningto perform the first uterus transplants in the US on 10 women, as part of an upcomingclinical trial that is now recruiting participants.
Uterus transplants have already happened in Europe. A similar clinical trial in the UK received ethical approval this September, The Guardian reported.
And in 2014, a 35-year-old Swedish woman became the first person to give birth using a donated uterus, from a 61-year-old friend of hers. In that case, the mother went through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) before the surgery and froze her eggs to use once she got her donor uterus.
But the trial at the Cleveland Clinic will be the first in the US, and the announcement set off a media firestorm, including a widely shared article in The New York Times.