Health Highlights: Dec. 4, 2017

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Texas Hospital Reports First U.S. Baby Born After Womb Transplant

The first baby born in the United States to a woman who had a womb transplant was delivered by doctors at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

The world’s first birth after a womb (uterine) transplant occurred in Sweden several years ago, the Associated Press reported.

The woman in Texas was born without a uterus and was one of four women who received womb transplants at Baylor as of October 2016. Three of those wombs had to be removed due to poor blood flow.

A Baylor spokesman confirmed Friday that the birth had taken place, but did not provide any more details. A news conference was scheduled for Monday to discuss the birth, according to the AP.

The Texas baby’s birth was first reported by Time magazine, which said more womb transplants have been performed at Baylor since October 2016, and that another women who received a transplant is pregnant.

As of last year, the Swedish doctor who was the first in the world to deliver a baby as a result of a womb transplant had delivered five babies from women with such transplants, the AP reported.

Last month, Penn Medicine in Philadelphia said it would start offering womb transplants.

The Dallas birth is “another important milestone in the history of reproductive medicine,” the American Society for Reproductive Medicine said in a statement Friday, the AP reported.

The group said it is convening experts to develop guidelines for facilities that want to offer womb transplants.

Wombs can come from both living and dead donors, and the transplants are not meant to be permanent. A woman who received a womb transplant must take powerful drugs to prevent organ rejection, so the uterus would be removed after one or two successful pregnancies, the AP reported.

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