Thanks for your research as adopted kids can’t be like your own bllod and stigma that accompanys us as our society will always whisper to the kids that you were adopted.

Seriously, this type of treatment is one reason society pays so much for healthcare. We need more GPs and fewer specialists, and we should pay the GPs better. It is very sad when a couple is infertile, but it is sadder when people die from preventable diseases.

I have nothing against this type of research; often it opens up doors to other research, like something that might help someone like BlessedBlogger.

But if you’re doing it just to get pregnant and have that extra special bonding moment, that’s just a waste.

For folks with infertility problems hearing ‘Why don’t you just adopt?’ is a big slap in the face. I’d adopt a baby (or even an older child) today if I could but adoption is a very lengthy, emotionally difficult and expensive process. And while I think adoption is a wonderful choice, one we plan to try even if we do manage to have a child, it’s undeniable that most folks have a hardwired drive to have their own genetic child and experience pregnancy. I hardly think that’s selfish or unreasonable.

I think people often don’t think of all the ramifications of infertility, especially the removal of your uterus and ovaries. Besides dealing with the medical, financial and emotional issues that come with infertility, you often have to deal with the underlying medical condition causing the infertility and all the hassle of being refused treatment for a medical condition not covered by insurance. If you lose your uterus and ovaries or they cease to function it isn’t just a matter of fertility, your reproductive organs do more than make babies. Without my ovaries I’ll cease to produce vital hormones which will cause me to go into an extreme form of menopause at the age of 29. This causes all sorts of serious health risks including bone loss, increased risk of heart disease and increased risk of various cancers, etc.

So please, before you criticize such a procedure, ask yourself if you can really understand infertility if you’ve never experienced it and how you would feel physically and psychologically if you lost your reproductive organs. Ask yourself if perhaps there are broader medical reasons for having the procedure than simply wanting to have a child.

For what it’s worth, I probably wouldn’t have this procedure done myself. It would likely not be covered by insurance (which is just horrible), it would likely be as expensive and risky as adoption. That said, just because I wouldn’t do it doesn’t mean I think it should be denied to other women.

However, there’s a lot of other alternatives to a transplanted uterus. First of all, there’s adoption. But if you’re totally set on having children that are your biological children, there’s surrogate parent-hood. I can’t imagine investing the money and risking my health and putting the financial and emotional strain of major surgery on my family to have a uterus transplanted just so that I could incubate my own fetus myself.

In countries where you pay for your own medicine, then of course, it’s up to you. The rest of the world however has socialised medicine and to expect it within such a system doesn’t seem right. Of course, you can always step outside State provided medicine and go private – something that the anti public-healthcare lobby in the States seems to ignore at every turn.