29-year-old Alabama woman will be the first in the state to receive a uterus transplant – World Latest News Headlines

Elizabeth Goldman always knew she wanted to be a mother.

Ever since she was little, she had been waiting for the day when she would be able to bear and give birth to a newborn baby.

But when she was a teenager, Goldman received some shocking news: She was born without a uterus.

mobile, alabamaThe native was crushed and though she is the mother of two children, she never thought that she would be able to fulfill the last part of the family.

Now, it looks like she might be able to.

Thanks to a new uterus transplant program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Goldman, 29, is about to become the first woman in the state to receive an organ transplant.

She spoke to DailyMail.com about her journey and how she hopes her story will bring more awareness to women about their condition as well as inspire others to chase their dreams.

Goldman said she first became aware of her condition when she was 14 years old and had not yet started menstruating.

“I was having a stomach ache and I haven’t had a period yet…but I wasn’t worried or worried about it,” she said.

‘There were girls with whom I was friends and who had not met yet.’

Because of the pain, her parents scheduled a doctor’s appointment, during which an ultrasound was scheduled.

It was then that Goldman suffered the stroke of his life. She was told that she was born without a uterus.

Growing up, I always wanted to be a mother. So when OBGYN told me that, it was totally heartbreaking,’ she said,

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Goldman was diagnosed with a disease called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome.

This is a rare disorder that occurs when a fetus is developing and is characterized by the uterus and vagina being underdeveloped or non-existent.

According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, MRKH syndrome affects one out of every 4,500 women at birth.

Women born with this condition suffer from Uterine Factor Infertility, which means they cannot give birth to a child.

Diagnosis usually occurs in adolescence, when a teenage girl has not yet started her period, like Goldman.

She said that after the appointment, she was met with her father in the waiting room.

‘I couldn’t say anything,’ she said.

‘And then we got into the elevator, and then I told him. And I was probably crying the whole ride home.’

Goldman said that in the next few years, the reality is that she may not have a biological child of her own.

‘Life still goes on,’ said Goldman, ‘but knowing if you want kids in the future is hard.

‘When you’re little, you know, you have baby dolls and I always knew I wanted a boy and a girl.

‘ But now it’s like: “Well, this is my reality and I just have to figure it out.”

She said her husband, Timmy, 34, told her about his diagnosis when she met him when he was 19.

And Goldman has since become a mother—raising her nephew Jaden at age nine, when he was five weeks old, and stepmother to her husband’s 11-year-old son, TJ.

But she never stopped dreaming of conceiving and giving birth to her child.

Then, in 2014, Goldman heard about the first successful uterus transplant, which took place in Sweden.

‘I sent it to my husband and I was like: “What if this could happen in America?” he said.

She previously contacted a few hospitals that were opening uterus transplant programs: the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, Texas; and Penn Medicine; and Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

However, with each program, he will have to move there temporarily.

“Just the fact that I have a stepson and we get him every other weekend,” she said.

‘I am dividing my family to get the last part of what I want. I didn’t want to take my husband away from their son or live with that regret.’

Then, in the fall of 2020, Goldman learned that UAB was launching the program, the first of its kind in the southeastern US, just 250 miles from her home in Mobile.

Goldman was the first to apply to the program in December 2020 and after several rounds of Zoom calls and screening and evaluation, she was officially accepted into the program in April.

One of his doctors, Dr. Paige Poret, director of Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation for UAB’s Comprehensive Transplant Institute, was actually at Penn Medicine when its program began before relocating to Alabama.

An abdominal transplant surgeon by trade – primarily kidney and liver – Poret was skeptical when the idea of ​​a uterus transplant first floated around.

However, she said she changed her mind after talking to some faculty at Penn and becoming a mother herself.

“After we had our first born with the first implant, I was struck by the lack of a better word,” Poret told DailyMail.com.

‘I really want to push this forward and make it more widely accessible to patients.’

Porat moved to Birmingham in 2020 to help set up the program at UAB and explained that the road ahead for Goldman will not be easy.

UAB will cover the cost of the transplant as well as the medication Goldman takes after the surgery to make sure her body doesn’t reject the new organ.

But she has to cover the cost of IVF procedures to retrieve eggs so they can be fertilized with sperm to make embryos.

These procedures are not covered by insurance and cost between $15,000 and $16,000 each.

On August 15, Goldman was listed for a transplant, meaning whenever a suitable donor is found, he or she would immediately get a call to go in and undergo the procedure.

“I’m just waiting for a call now that they found a match,” she said.

‘There’s a small percentage that don’t feel real. I am grateful to be on this journey… but my heart races all the time when my phone rings.’

Goldman shared his story via a Facebook group.Goldman Baby Adventures: Elizabeth’s Uterus Transplantation and IVF Journey,

Now to 1,800 followers, she shares her medical history and her journey to a uterus transplant and also raises money for medical procedures.

Porat says she admires Goldman’s openness in sharing her story and calls her a ‘pioneer’ in making MRKH less stigmatized.

‘Elizabeth is incredible. I admire him a lot,’ she said.

‘He is a tremendous advocate for the MRKH community. She came forward with her diagnosis and told many people about her illness. She is an advocate of women like her.

When Goldman eventually undergoes the transplant, she will be the first in Alabama and the 33rd woman in the United States to do so.

She said, ‘I just hope I can help inspire others.

‘If you have a dream, chase it. Don’t give up Never stop chasing that dream.