That Time I Considered a Uterine Transplant

 

I am trying guys. I really am.

I am trying to look for options. Gestational carriers are like majestic unicorns. They are rare and then there’s the fact that it’s not every day that someone wakes up and says, “hey, I love cankles and heartburn. I think I want carry a baby for a random infertile couple.” So, I am kick flipping every stone I come across to see if maybe just maybe I can find another answer. I am trying to hang on to a tattered thread of hope that our journey isn’t at some abrupt end.  

The reality is I am running out of both options and time.

Almost exactly a year ago, I was about to undergo my 7^th IVF retrieval.  I ordered thousands of dollars in medications and underwent a hell of a lot of blood work and ultrasounds. Apparently being sans uterus tends to complicate things. I parted ways with a few thousands more for a surrogacy contract. THIS WAS HAPPENING. Our transfer date was set for June. Do the math, you’ll see why this month stings a little more.

When our surrogate backed out we were absolutely blindsided. It just came out of nowhere. More so, there really isn’t a back-up plan when these kind of things happen. When an IVF failed in the past, it was devastating but I had options and well, at that point I had a uterus, it was an angry dysfunctional one but at least it was present.

I feel a massive weight bearing down on me. Chris still has hope and energy to keep plugging away at building our family. I have a wonderful-wild surro-toddler that innocently harasses me daily for a baby brother or sister that I physically cannot give to her. This week she has requested that I have one that comes with a three piece suit like Boss Baby. The bigger kick in the vag is I feel like I have somehow let down my embryos in waiting. They may just be a group of cells now, but to me, it was what they could be. What they could be to me, Chris and Jellybean.

Uterine transplant. Let’s talk about this. Yep, this is a thing. It’s a pretty cool science-y thing that has just recently come into reality only a few years ago. The first live birth from a transplanted uterus was in October of 2014, in Sweden.  Since then, I have been keeping a close eye on the successes of the uterine transplant trials here in the U.S. Thinking to myself, “wow, once this technology comes out of the trial process, it will be an incredible option for a lot of couples.” Ideally for women who are born without a uterus or for women who are like me, with a uterus that was the anti-Christ.

Currently it is in the clinical trial stage here in the U.S. Which also means it will be a fair amount of time before it will be more offered to a wider public. Even then, there will be set criteria, health requirements and protocols in place. 

 

Some of the clinical study requirements are:

 

Women with AUI (Absolute Uterine Factor) NOT to be confused with Adult Urinary

Incontinence which shares the same acronym features (and I am sure really sucks.) 

Women who are 20-35, with functioning ovaries

BMI of less than 30

Diabetes: No history

Non-smoker

Cancer free for at least 5 years

Sans diseases like: HIV, hepatitis B and C, chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes

 

Sadly, since I am no spring chicken, I had counted myself out of this even being an option for Chris and I. 

That was until I, on a whim, emailed Baylor Health in Dallas Texas who has an ongoing trail. I laughed when I submitted the initial clinical study form. I knew I didn’t have a chance. For starters I was right outside their age eligibility which was 20-35. Imagine my shock when I got an email back requesting more information! Still not hopeful, I spoke with an AMAZING woman there named Kristen who was the uterine transplant nurse.

The moment that Baylor Health came up on my caller ID I pretty much had an internal freak-out. I remember verbatim what I said to Kristin after she introduced herself to me.

“Kristin, have you ever played the lottery? I do only when the jackpot is ridiculously high. Here’s what happens, I’ll come out of the store with my ticket and on the way home I will pretty much go into a deep day dream of all of the amazing things I would buy, charities I would donate to, even down to the paint color I would paint our new house (if we had won).  I am not playing the lottery right now because it feels like this is just too far from the reach of reality, but I do want you to know this is a winning lottery ticket for someone like me. “

With that, we started talking.

Something that Chris and I had going for us is that we already have frozen embryos. More so, they were PGS tested. Read more about PGS and why that’s kinda a big deal. Remember I mentioned how awesome Kristin was? Well, she said something to me that I thought I would NEVER hear.

“I think you would make a good candidate for the trial. There’s only one problem, the study is full so we will need to see if another clinical round begins or if something changes among the current 10 already chosen.”

OK—so you’re saying I have a chance?

That was pretty awesome. PAUSE for clarification. Let me be clear on one thing. Over the course of my journey I have come to terms with the fact that I would never be able to carry a pregnancy and that the outcome of pregnancy is what matters, not how I get there.  Personally for me, entertaining the thought of a uterine transfer was not about experiencing pregnancy and birth; that notion is so far from reality in my own mind’s eye, that I didn’t see it as an option. Instead, I see this as an opportunity for me to give my “embryos in waiting” a chance.

A few weeks later. I got an excited call from my main girl at Baylor. Someone had dropped out of the study. They had a spot for me and wanted us to fly to Dallas as soon as possible to talk through details, run some tests, dance around the red tape– yada yada. That’s when the real questions and answers started happening. What was once some sci-fi, never-gonna-happen idea is now actually playing out.  We asked questions lots of questions, we poured into what little information is out there, and I spoke with my RE who was both excited to hear about it, and gave me the good, the bad, and the ugly of what I can expect.

Before Chris and I would make a trip to Dallas we needed to make sure that we would not be there to fact find but instead, be there to work out the finite details and commit to this decision. One kind of big obstacle came to light during this process, I would need to be in Dallas from the time that the uterus was transferred, throughout the pregnancy and until it would be removed.

We had 3 options…

Candace does Dallas.

I could temporally move to Dallas, Chris and Jellybean visit, I visit home when I can and we live the next year on Facetime. Just to be clear, that really wasn’t even an option. I can’t go a more than 24 hours without my Jellybean fix and I worked too damn hard to be a mom to begin with.  So back to white board of options…

 

We (three) become Texans.

Chris transfers to Houston, and the three of us become Texans. Sure, I’ll have to up my boot game and acquire a new-found love for brisket and Tex-mex, so that doesn’t sound so bad right?

Damn logistics. The closest transfer location for Chris was Houston (with no sure sign of a transfer.) That means we would have our current house to contend with and then two temporary living arrangements: Chris in Houston, me in Dallas and one confused uprooted Jellybean. Seeing as we do not have a money tree in bloom or a rich uncle… this is also not an option.

 

Rack up some frequent flyer miles.

I would fly and temporally stay in Dallas for the major procedures, tests, and milestone appointments then I would have interim care here at home with our specialist group. Since this is still fresh in the clinical trial stage, they would need all hands, eyes, and, doctors affixed to my uterus. Traveling away from Dallas for more than a two week period of time could impact the study.  

So that was that.

Really, I think I am more disappointed about not being able to work with Kristin (seriously, she is awesome) from Baylor, than the fact it was not a good fit for us.  This is incredible progress in reproductive medicine and will surely be an option more readily available for people like me in the near future.  

Until then, when someone asks us a few years down the road “did you ever consider trying XYZ…” I can certainly add “uterine transplant” to the long growing list.

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