Hey, there. I’ve been looking forward to this piece because the first successful uterus transplant was done in Sweden when I was in residency, so there was a lot of academic chatter about it then.
So, what people may not realize, is that a “simple” hysterectomy does not produce a specimen suitable for transplant. If you just do a regular degular hysterectomy, you don’t get all the blood vessels that will need to be grafted into the donor. To get a specimen for transplant, the surgery has to be similar to a “radical” hysterectomy, which has historically done in cases of cervical cancer to try to increase patients’ survival, as cervical cancer spreads outward from the cervix to the pelvic sidewall.
Radical hysterectomy is an entirely different procedure from a simple hysterectomy, much more morbid for the patient. It is not typically done laparoscopically. Damage to the surrounding pelvic tissues is common, but the benefit is extending the patient’s life and potentially curing a truly awful disease.
Patients recover pretty fast from simple hysterectomy these days, because they can be done so minimally invasively, but the kind of surgery that produces a transplant specimen is a whole different thing.
Thank you for explaining that. It makes perfect sense when you say it, and it makes the idea of this procedure even more upsetting.
So, since you're here, I'd love to ask you: how is this even a thing these doctors are considering? I'm not a doctor, of course, but I can't see how putting a uterus in a man is going to work, for many reasons.
Do you think this something they are genuinely going to risk lives on?
😂 why do doctors do crazy things? I don’t freaking know. People just get so excited that they CAN do something, they gloss over whether they should. I will say, due to the morbidity for the donor, I’ve never loved the idea, even for the MRKH gals or the tragically young cervical cancer gals. But I get it. These are great candidates for gestational carriers in my opinion.
Somebody will do it someday, because they can. Probably not in this country.
It was a great article! No notes from me! I enjoy your writing very much. 😀
It should be obvious that a 'neo-vagina' made from donated colon is incapable of functioning as a birth canal. And so wombs will be transplanted into men, used to gestate infants, and then cut open again to deliver the child. What could possibly go wrong?
Also, too: the OR HOURS all this vivisection will take! Consider for a moment how many heart bypasses, knee replacements, brain surgeries, cancer tumor removals, lung transplants, wound repairs,literally hundreds of other surgeries, that could be performed during the time that this Dr Moreau abominational crime against humanity is using up the space, skill and talents only available in the Operating Room.
Uterus transplants IIRC are also like the only major medical advance pioneered in Saudi Arabia, which IMO says the whole thing is patriarchy with a scalpel.
Considering the legal, grey, and black markets for prostitution, surrogacy, and egg farms, if viable uterine transplants into men were to somehow happen we will immediately see a creation of a similar human trafficking supplied black market. The Georgian egg farms are stuff of horrors.
But in all my discussions with people who support surrogacy, IVF, cloning. and gene editing, I have found a concept which has so far horrified all of them, an idea I had in high school back when I learnt about human sex determination in greater detail. A man has all the genes needed to form a woman, you just remove the Y, and double the X. I need a single uterus to gestate a female clone of myself, and from there on I can just start a process of exponentially increasing number of male and female clones of myself, with end goal of creating a civilisation of me.
This mind experiment never fails to horrify people, no matter what their opinion on gene editing and cloning is.
Well, thank you very much for my nightmares for the next month!
(Joking. Mostly.)
I think part of what makes that even more frightening is that right now we all can think of some men in power who would do that in a heartbeat, with nary a thought about consequences. Or we'll end up with a new civilization of Elon Musks on Mars. Ugh.
I didn't think that things could get any more horrifying than "gender affirming surgeries" but then I read about uterine transplants for "trans women". At what point must the government stand up and say "Hell Fucking No!!"?? I guess the battle over GAC for minors is a good guide, unfortunately.
Oh my God. Thank you so much for this article. I am unspeakably angry about the idea of uterus transfer, but also angry and sad - an understated word - for the poor children who are inevitably involved in this, though they are barely mentioned. We know that a baby’s brain and its mother’s brain change in sync for 18 months post birth. To deprive a baby of this unnecessarily is therefore a massive deprivation for the child. This, I feel, applies to surrogacy where the removal of the birth mother as soon as possible from the baby is the stated aim of the ‘contract’. It seems clear to me that this ability is a function of pregnancy and not of biological relation to the child. If a baby is abandoned or orphaned then its adoption offers it the best chance, but to contract the baby away, this is no interest if the child’s. You are so right to state that women’s bodies are dedicated to their role in reproduction, just as a man’s is. Do we have any idea whether, should a healthy baby ever be born from this Frankenstein horror, a man’s brain is capable of this relation to the baby? Do we know whether the drugs required to not reject the uterus will affect the baby? There have been no cited studies on the effects of the nipple pus that is drug induced in this new craze for trans women to feed babies on the babies. Yes this appears to be fetishized and I think most people would agree that the involvement of a baby with no choices or agency in a fetish is disgusting. For me the consequences for the children are as important as the effects on women, both are frightening. It is bad enough that some babies are being laid on the chests of testosterone filled women with beards who will insist to the child that they are both the mother and a man, no-one knows the psychological consequences of this, never mind the physical consequences of the testosterone. But this is a whole new level of horror. I write as a gay woman who has no children but who values her womanhood.
This piece is about a study that concluded that men have a right to breastfeed that should be included in their "gender affirming care" protocols. AKA promoting the use of babies as fetish props: https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/men-breastfeeding-again
Re the last point; surrogacy. To take this down to basics, we know that separating a newborn kitten from its mother is bad for both, and cruel, which is why breeders often wait til 12 weeks to rehome the kittens/puppies etc. So WTAF is it so hard for people to understand that doing this to a human baby is an inhumane horror show?!
Many kennel clubs have rules for breeders which state penalties for sending puppies to new homes before 8 weeks of age. Surrogate babies are often whisked straight into the arms of their purchasers.
This is so profoundly disturbing. Keep your fucking filthy hands off of women’s bodies!! The fact that the medical community is even considering taking a woman’s uterus and giving it to some rando dude with a fetish is horrifying. Way to make women trust the medical system even less. They already dismiss us so much and tell us we’re faking everything. Now they want to harvest our organs for delusional men. Fucking sickening
This is wonderful news and I hope that all the women who are truly supportive of this population will be first in line to donate their organs, as a testament to their commitment that trans women are women. /s
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 John 2:18)
Judge me if you want, but when I heard about uterus harvesting I took myself off of the organ donor list. Horrifying.
I've seen the same thing from several women online, so you are definitely not alone.
I'd love to be able to see the numbers. Actually...maybe I can...time to research!
There's nothing to judge, they are your organs. People who are judgy about non-organ donors better go as often as possible to donate blood.
Same! And since then I’ve had a total hysterectomy and I am weirdly relieved that no one gets that part of me!
No judgment. In fact you have given me something to think about.
Hey, there. I’ve been looking forward to this piece because the first successful uterus transplant was done in Sweden when I was in residency, so there was a lot of academic chatter about it then.
So, what people may not realize, is that a “simple” hysterectomy does not produce a specimen suitable for transplant. If you just do a regular degular hysterectomy, you don’t get all the blood vessels that will need to be grafted into the donor. To get a specimen for transplant, the surgery has to be similar to a “radical” hysterectomy, which has historically done in cases of cervical cancer to try to increase patients’ survival, as cervical cancer spreads outward from the cervix to the pelvic sidewall.
Radical hysterectomy is an entirely different procedure from a simple hysterectomy, much more morbid for the patient. It is not typically done laparoscopically. Damage to the surrounding pelvic tissues is common, but the benefit is extending the patient’s life and potentially curing a truly awful disease.
Patients recover pretty fast from simple hysterectomy these days, because they can be done so minimally invasively, but the kind of surgery that produces a transplant specimen is a whole different thing.
Oh, wow! I'm embarrassed that you read it!
I'm a layman with a big mouth sometimes. Heh.
Thank you for explaining that. It makes perfect sense when you say it, and it makes the idea of this procedure even more upsetting.
So, since you're here, I'd love to ask you: how is this even a thing these doctors are considering? I'm not a doctor, of course, but I can't see how putting a uterus in a man is going to work, for many reasons.
Do you think this something they are genuinely going to risk lives on?
😂 why do doctors do crazy things? I don’t freaking know. People just get so excited that they CAN do something, they gloss over whether they should. I will say, due to the morbidity for the donor, I’ve never loved the idea, even for the MRKH gals or the tragically young cervical cancer gals. But I get it. These are great candidates for gestational carriers in my opinion.
Somebody will do it someday, because they can. Probably not in this country.
It was a great article! No notes from me! I enjoy your writing very much. 😀
Thank you so much! I really appreciate that!
You're right. Who knows why anyone does any of the stupid stuff they do? 🤷♀️
Did not know this, very helpful, thank you! Am I to understand that transplant from living donors is then prohibitive?
It should be obvious that a 'neo-vagina' made from donated colon is incapable of functioning as a birth canal. And so wombs will be transplanted into men, used to gestate infants, and then cut open again to deliver the child. What could possibly go wrong?
It's absolutely insane, isn't it?
Also, too: the OR HOURS all this vivisection will take! Consider for a moment how many heart bypasses, knee replacements, brain surgeries, cancer tumor removals, lung transplants, wound repairs,literally hundreds of other surgeries, that could be performed during the time that this Dr Moreau abominational crime against humanity is using up the space, skill and talents only available in the Operating Room.
There is already a shortage of HRT for menopausal women because of this.
They don't care if women die to affirm them.
They don't care if other life saving surgery is postponed
And some doctors will do whatever makes the most money.
Hopefully insurance companies will say no, like they do to so many things that are actually needed.
The more we have to sacrifice, the more affirming it seems to be.
Everything, hopefully.
And cost at least two firstborn sons, YES, pun intended.
Uterus transplants IIRC are also like the only major medical advance pioneered in Saudi Arabia, which IMO says the whole thing is patriarchy with a scalpel.
Interesting. I was not aware of that.
Considering the legal, grey, and black markets for prostitution, surrogacy, and egg farms, if viable uterine transplants into men were to somehow happen we will immediately see a creation of a similar human trafficking supplied black market. The Georgian egg farms are stuff of horrors.
But in all my discussions with people who support surrogacy, IVF, cloning. and gene editing, I have found a concept which has so far horrified all of them, an idea I had in high school back when I learnt about human sex determination in greater detail. A man has all the genes needed to form a woman, you just remove the Y, and double the X. I need a single uterus to gestate a female clone of myself, and from there on I can just start a process of exponentially increasing number of male and female clones of myself, with end goal of creating a civilisation of me.
This mind experiment never fails to horrify people, no matter what their opinion on gene editing and cloning is.
Well, thank you very much for my nightmares for the next month!
(Joking. Mostly.)
I think part of what makes that even more frightening is that right now we all can think of some men in power who would do that in a heartbeat, with nary a thought about consequences. Or we'll end up with a new civilization of Elon Musks on Mars. Ugh.
Bravo once again❤️❤️🩹
Thank you so much, dear!
I didn't think that things could get any more horrifying than "gender affirming surgeries" but then I read about uterine transplants for "trans women". At what point must the government stand up and say "Hell Fucking No!!"?? I guess the battle over GAC for minors is a good guide, unfortunately.
The fact they are wasting medical research funding on this is so cruel
So many things we need more research on in medical studies and THIS got funding?
Ffs
Incredible essay. Thanks. I find it disgusting and revolting that medical professionals are even considering this.
Oh my God. Thank you so much for this article. I am unspeakably angry about the idea of uterus transfer, but also angry and sad - an understated word - for the poor children who are inevitably involved in this, though they are barely mentioned. We know that a baby’s brain and its mother’s brain change in sync for 18 months post birth. To deprive a baby of this unnecessarily is therefore a massive deprivation for the child. This, I feel, applies to surrogacy where the removal of the birth mother as soon as possible from the baby is the stated aim of the ‘contract’. It seems clear to me that this ability is a function of pregnancy and not of biological relation to the child. If a baby is abandoned or orphaned then its adoption offers it the best chance, but to contract the baby away, this is no interest if the child’s. You are so right to state that women’s bodies are dedicated to their role in reproduction, just as a man’s is. Do we have any idea whether, should a healthy baby ever be born from this Frankenstein horror, a man’s brain is capable of this relation to the baby? Do we know whether the drugs required to not reject the uterus will affect the baby? There have been no cited studies on the effects of the nipple pus that is drug induced in this new craze for trans women to feed babies on the babies. Yes this appears to be fetishized and I think most people would agree that the involvement of a baby with no choices or agency in a fetish is disgusting. For me the consequences for the children are as important as the effects on women, both are frightening. It is bad enough that some babies are being laid on the chests of testosterone filled women with beards who will insist to the child that they are both the mother and a man, no-one knows the psychological consequences of this, never mind the physical consequences of the testosterone. But this is a whole new level of horror. I write as a gay woman who has no children but who values her womanhood.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thank you!!
Here is where I wrote about the morons who think that all you need for pregnancy is a uterus: https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/why-and-how-men-cant-be-biological
This is about those men who want to skip all that messy human stuff and just bypass actual people who are still needed for baby making: https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/artificial-wombs-and-fake-babies
This is about the disastrous effects of women welcoming men into (formerly) mother to mother birth and breastfeeding groups: https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/inducing-magical-thinking
This piece is about a study that concluded that men have a right to breastfeed that should be included in their "gender affirming care" protocols. AKA promoting the use of babies as fetish props: https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/men-breastfeeding-again
This is about La Leche League's support for men breastfeeding: https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/is-la-leche-league-international
And this is about a related topic, which is surrogacy, which is no less than buying babies off the internet for some men: https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/telling-it-like-it-is-without-the
Re the last point; surrogacy. To take this down to basics, we know that separating a newborn kitten from its mother is bad for both, and cruel, which is why breeders often wait til 12 weeks to rehome the kittens/puppies etc. So WTAF is it so hard for people to understand that doing this to a human baby is an inhumane horror show?!
Many kennel clubs have rules for breeders which state penalties for sending puppies to new homes before 8 weeks of age. Surrogate babies are often whisked straight into the arms of their purchasers.
https://x.com/sappholives83/status/1912745302177546548?s=46
i came across this tweet just now and i was struck by the paralells in your piece. they are the same people across generations- it’s uncanny.
This is so profoundly disturbing. Keep your fucking filthy hands off of women’s bodies!! The fact that the medical community is even considering taking a woman’s uterus and giving it to some rando dude with a fetish is horrifying. Way to make women trust the medical system even less. They already dismiss us so much and tell us we’re faking everything. Now they want to harvest our organs for delusional men. Fucking sickening
This is wonderful news and I hope that all the women who are truly supportive of this population will be first in line to donate their organs, as a testament to their commitment that trans women are women. /s
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 John 2:18)
And lo I beheld a pale horse, and it's rider's pronouns was...
If it becomes protocol that all uterine transplant patients IVs must be in the right hand, we'll KNOW.
🤮
BTW: Jasmine Sussex is an Australian heroine.