Historic feat: First ovarian transplantation in Serbia: After US, our country is the only to succeed at this

Photo: Unsplash/ Illustration

A sister who has children gave a part of her ovaries to a sister who does not. The twins are recovering well after the surgery. It is the first ovarian transplantation in our country, region, but also anywhere outside the US.

Recommended

"Everything went well, we recently did that transplantation between two identical twin sisters, one of whom went through premature menopause in her early 30s and didn't have children. The other sister had already had two children and now she gave a part of her ovaries to her sister so that she could restore the hormonal function and give birth," gynecologist and expert in reproductive medicine Dr. Milan Milenkovic told RTS.

According to him, it is expected that the patient could become pregnant at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

It is a known phenomenon among identical twins that one of them can enter premature menopause because their embryo divides much earlier, and most of the egg cells end up in the other twin.

"This is the first ovarian transplantation in our country and the first transplantation between identical twins that was performed outside America. In the US, the procedure has been performed on a dozen female patients and all of them have had children, but it has not been done in Europe and the rest of the world until now," Milenkovic stressed.

Around the world, about 200 children were born after ovarian transplantation.

The patient's recovery is going fast, the surgery and the post operative course went smoothly and now the hormonal function is returning.

"Our visions have started to come true. I have known Professor Milenkovic for 20 years and we have been dreaming about this since the beginning of the century. I just want to say that the visions of all of us can come true if we work, cooperate and use all our potentials to reach a goal", says urogenital surgeon, Dr. Miroslav Djordjevic.

Six years ago, a uterus transplantation was performed for the first time in Serbia, a testicle transplantation was performed in identical twins, and now an ovary transplantation has been done.

"We are a unique country in the world where genital organs transplantation has proven to be very successful. We were lucky that in all three cases the candidates were identical twins and that we did not have to include quite heavy immunosuppressive therapy, which is necessary to prevent rejection (of organs)," explains Djordjevic.

He also noted that all these projects and surgeries are being prepared for years, even decades.

"Milan knows very well what he went through while perfecting the uterus transplantation in Gothenburg. They started with mice and got to the point where they could work on living people. I am currently the manager of a project in which we are preparing for a penis transplantation, but for now we are working on cadaver studies at the Institute of Forensic Medicine," says Djordjevic.

"We practice all these techniques so that there are no shortcomings. Once you enter the OR, there is no way out. We have to succeed, and that's why we have to be prepared," concludes Djordjevic.

(Telegraf.rs)