Jennifer Gobrecht and her husband Drew dreamed of having a child of their own.
But that was believed to be impossible since Jennifer was born without a uterus.
Thanks to modern medicine and a clinical trial at Penn Medicine the couple, who live in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, now share a beautiful baby boy.
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“This journey has not been easy, but every time I look at Benjamin’s face, I know it was worth it,” Jennifer, 33, told ABC News said. “Benjamin is truly a miracle, and we feel beyond lucky to have him.”
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Jennifer has Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome which caused her to be born without a uterus.
It’s a congenital condition found in one out of every 4,500 females.
She thought that adoption or surrogacy would be her only options
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But Jennifer didn’t want to give up and decided to be bold and take part in a medical trial for a uterus transplant.
“Benjamin is the second baby born in the United States to a woman who’s received a uterus transplant from a deceased donor and the third in the world,” Dr. Kathleen O’Neill of Penn Medicine told NBC 10 Philadelphia.
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ABC News reports that there have been about 70 uterus transplants performed worldwide but this trial is one of few that accepts donations from both living and deceased donors.
Most only accept donations from living donors.
“There’s no measure to how important that is and how much that meant to us that this family was able to preserve her legacy but also to help us create the life and the family we’ve always wanted,” Jennifer said.
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Jennifer found out that she wouldn’t be able to conceive at the age of 17.
“That was a very difficult thing to hear as a teenage girl who had dreams of being a loving mother,” Gobrecht said. “Like many young girls, I dreamed of how it would feel to grow a baby in my womb, to feel them kick inside me, and those dreams disappeared.”
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She wouldn’t have believed you two years ago if you told her that she would be able to give birth to her own child.
“Uterus transplant is the only path to parenthood that will actually allow these women to carry their own pregnancies,” she O’Neill said.
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Thankfully, Jennifer learned about the trial at Penn Medicine and was able to participate.
Her son Benjamin was born in November via C-section.
But her trial is still ongoing as trial participants are studied for five to 10 years after their transplant.
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They are inseminated via in vitro fertilization and then have hysterectomies after giving birth since there is a risk of the body rejecting the implanted uterus.
“It was hard but worth it,” Drew said. “One hundred percent worth it.”
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Researchers say that the trial will not only help them to create more lives in the future but will also give them a better understanding of transplants so that they can save more lives.
Jennifer hopes that her story will give women who struggle with infertility hope that they too will be able to conceive one day.
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“Explore your options,” Jennifer said. “Try a trial. You’ll never know unless you kind of put yourself out there a little bit and give yourself these opportunities to try different fertility treatments.”
Learn more about another woman’s similar story in the video below.
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