A Belgian woman has become the first to give birth to a child after having ovarian tissue that was removed and frozen nearly 14 years earlier transplanted back into her body:
The 27-year-old had an ovary removed at age 13, just before she began invasive treatment for sickle cell anaemia. Her remaining ovary failed following the treatment, meaning she would have been unlikely to conceive without the transplant. Experts hope that this procedure could eventually help other young patients. The woman gave birth to a healthy boy in November 2014, and details of the case were published on Wednesday in the journal Human Reproduction.
The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, was diagnosed with sickle cell anaemia at the age of five. She emigrated from the Republic of Congo to Belgium where doctors decided her disease was so severe that she needed a bone marrow transplant using her brother's matching tissue. But before they could begin the bone marrow transplant, they needed to give her chemotherapy to disable her immune system and stop it from rejecting the foreign tissue. Chemotherapy can destroy the ovarian function, so they removed her right ovary and froze tissue fragments. At that time, she was showing signs of puberty, but had not yet started her periods. Her remaining ovary failed at 15. Ten years later, she decided she wanted to have a baby, so doctors grafted four of her thawed ovarian fragments onto her remaining ovary and 11 fragments onto other sites in her body. The patient started menstruating spontaneously five months later, and became pregnant naturally at the age of 27.
Original Submission
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It's a sign that a much-needed procedure in South Africa is really working.
The recipient of the world's first successful penis transplant will soon be a father, according to the South African outlet News24. His surgeons were recently informed that his girlfriend is pregnant.
The surgery took place just six months ago, three years after the 21-year-old had lost his own organ after infection caused by a botched ceremonial circumcision. Stellenbosch University urologist, Prof. Andre van der Merwe, who led the historic surgical team, explained at a March news conference that South Africa has a particular need for such a surgery: Members of the Xhosa ethnic group often practice adult circumcision, and poor sanitation leads to some 250 amputations every year.
To get permission to use the penis that has now facilitated a pregnancy, van der Merwe's team had to fashion a new one out of abdominal skin for the deceased donor to be buried with. One day soon, we may not need donors at all: Last year, researchers reported progress in lab-grown penises built with the recipient's own cells to avoid organ rejection.
This is good news for men who lose their penises to cancer and accidents, too.
[Ed note: We recently ran a story about a woman who succeeded in having a Live Birth After Autograft of Ovarian Tissue Cryopreserved During Childhood.]
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 12 2015, @03:50PM
Story forwarded to the women in my life. What's next? Brain transplants?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/6/chinese-doctor-performs-head-transplants-on-mice-m/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS [washingtontimes.com]
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 12 2015, @04:09PM
First Human Head Transplant Could Happen in Two Years [soylentnews.org]
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/02/human-head-transplant-project-proposed.html [nextbigfuture.com]
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/04/human-volunteer-for-head-transplant.html [nextbigfuture.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday June 12 2015, @04:24PM
Those wacky Belgians have turned my pancake into something they call a 'Waffle' and now the wee little babbies don't slide off my pancakes before i can eat 'em! :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 12 2015, @04:44PM
Great, just what the world needs. Another ooking and eeking chest-thumping Cro-Magnon Congol artificially given the ability to breed by cuckold Europeans.
Ooga-booga spear chuck cuck cuck cuck!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @04:54PM
So did she stop growning and still looks like a little girl?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 12 2015, @05:10PM
Is that you, Pedobear?
The answer is "no". Did you click the link? I read that she was on a regimen of hormones, to help her to develop normally. No, I don't understand everything in the article, but there is nothing in the article to lead anyone to believe that she just stopped developing on the verge of puberty.
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 4, Informative) by Freeman on Friday June 12 2015, @05:48PM
The answer to the question is no, even if not on hormone replacement therapy. The side effect of not hitting puberty is that some of your bones will grow abnormally long. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrato [wikipedia.org] (Boys) While this reference is about boys, the same side effect would occur with girls, if their ovaries were not to function properly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kallmann_syndrome [wikipedia.org] (Boys and Girls)
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday June 12 2015, @06:18PM
So, clearly this is an amazing breakthrough in bio-engineering and more power to the woman in question.
But....it seems like our priorities are all screwed up when it comes to fertility treatments. There are so many unwanted children out there with more being created every minute. Instead of helping those existing children we spend millions on creating more. How does that make sense?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 12 2015, @06:37PM
So, clearly this is an amazing breakthrough in bio-engineering and more power to the woman in question.
What makes you so sure it was about the Women?
Bruce Jenner is probably standing in line for the transplant just as soon as his other surgeries are finished.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @07:00PM
Yet again Frojack comments on a social issue and reveals, what at best could be characterized as, profound ignorance.
As if an ovary tissue graft could be sufficient for a 60 year old transexual to bear children.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @07:05PM
That's a false dilemma. It isn't like the cost of this research would have otherwise gone to adoption programs.
Besides, it is simply folly to deny the fundamental drive that many, probably even a majority, of people have to produce genetic offspring. After all, the point of genes is to produce more of the same genes.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday June 12 2015, @07:13PM
That's a false dilemma. It isn't like the cost of this research would have otherwise gone to adoption programs.
The research money may not have gone to adoption but the money that pays for the actual treatments certainly could have. And the child that may have been adopted in the absence of treatment certainly is affected. So, no, the dilemma is real.
(Score: 2) by iwoloschin on Friday June 12 2015, @07:21PM
But you're assuming that people want to adopt, versus raise their *own* children. It's not that I can have fertility treatments or adopt. It might be that I can have fertility treatments or I just never bother with children.
You can phrase it any way you want, but reducing it to two choices creates a false dilemma.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2015, @07:03AM
Besides, it is simply folly to deny the fundamental drive that many, probably even a majority, of people have to produce genetic offspring.
Then they are mere beasts who don't even try to overcome their irrational (because infinite growth isn't sustainable in the long run) instincts. Chances are, our genes aren't so special that they need to be passed on. You can't take over your child's body when they're born, so the fake 'immortality' argument goes out the window. Furthermore, at around 7 billion people, we have more than enough. Finally, we have plenty of people who don't have loving homes.
No one is trying to "deny" that the ignorant majority has such a drive, but we should attempt to educate people all the same.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2015, @07:05AM
After all, the point of genes is to produce more of the same genes.
There is no objective "point" to genes. We have merely made some observations about what tends to happen in reality, but at the end of the day, it's a mindless process.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Friday June 12 2015, @09:33PM
From my intentionally childfree perspective, I look at this and think it's just crazy. I mean, first off, the world needs extra humans like it needs a major oil spill and so I sit in wonder at the massive amount of money spent on fertility treatments ... obviously, irrational desires (like the one to spawn that I happily avoided) can drive a lot of business. And speaking of business, this is an awesome business plan for doctors -- make sure that people with dangerous genetic conditions that require expensive medical treatments, pass those genes on through additional expensive treatments, and in so doing, create a whole new generation of customers for expensive medical treatments. Not just "PROFIT!" -- exponential profit growth potential. Breeders are weird.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2015, @12:38AM
> irrational desires (like the one to spawn that I happily avoided) can drive a lot of business.
Part of becoming an adult is recognizing that different people have different motivations and your motivations aren't neceesarily better than their's.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Saturday June 13 2015, @07:10AM
That depends on what your goals are. If your goal is to create a sustainable living environment for present and future generations, then insane population growth probably isn't a good thing. If you're short-sighted and don't care, then it probably doesn't matter. But lots of people would at least say they care about what will happen in the future. And the effects our actions have on the environment and how many resources we consume can be objectively determined, so it's not just a 'You have your view and I'll have mine.' situation if you have a certain goal.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 13 2015, @01:16AM
One can argue that you are the one with the irrational desires. It appears that you wish to end your own family tree. Virtually all of life desires to reproduce, and to pass on it's genes. You presume that being different somehow makes you superior - but it's equally possible that being different means that you are defective. No, I'm not intentionally being insulting - not any more than you were intentionally being insulting when you you claimed to be more rational than all of your peers who wish to procreate.
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday June 13 2015, @04:51AM
I'm not insulted. I'm right!
(where's my weedburner?)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2015, @07:03AM
One can argue that you are the one with the irrational desires. It appears that you wish to end your own family tree. Virtually all of life desires to reproduce, and to pass on it's genes. You presume that being different somehow makes you superior
Irrational? Looks like you missed the part where the grand parent mentioned the over population problem the world is currently facing. So that makes his choise certainly rational, even heroic.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Saturday June 13 2015, @07:14AM
One can argue that you are the one with the irrational desires. It appears that you wish to end your own family tree. Virtually all of life desires to reproduce, and to pass on it's genes.
None of which is particularly important, especially with as many people as there are now.
You presume that being different somehow makes you superior - but it's equally possible that being different means that you are defective.
This depends on what your goals are. If your goal is to ensure a good quality of life for the future, then breeding mindlessly probably isn't a good idea. And I suspect most people would at least entertain the notion of thinking about the future.
But I don't expect much from people who can't control themselves to begin with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:53PM
"the world needs extra humans"
The world or universe doesn't need anything. It's all a series of accidents.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday June 15 2015, @05:04PM
Currently the United States isn't the problem. China and India are somewhat comparative to the United States in size and they have 1.3 billion and 1.2 billion people respectively. Africa and Asia have the most undernourished people. According to a report by the "Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations" from 2014-2016 about 20% of the population of Africa or 232.5 million people are undernourished and 12.1% of the population of Asia or 511.7 million people are undernourished. There are undoubtedly many reasons for why that is the case, but people in the United States not having kids won't solve the problem. India and China both make up a good percentage of the Asian number at 194.6 million of the population and 133.8 million respectively or 15.2% and 9.3% of their populations. In comparison the United States has less than 5% of people undernourished, they don't even bother to assign a specific number. That may be in part due to the fact that we have lots of programs to help keep our poor fed. I know that I donate to our Local food bank. It's popular with grocery stores to have give money to your local food bank. Our local post office runs a help feed people thing usually around Thanksgiving time where you just leave a bag of non-perishable items for them to pickup. That's just to name a couple of examples.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"