A research breakthrough could make it easier for transgender men to have children

How far away are we from asexual reproduction outside of the human body (ex utero)? Maybe only 10-30 years. Humans are transcending nature.

About 3 years ago, I speculated here about the state of artificial wombs and ectogenesis.

I think, the MIT Technology Review is disingenuous to make this article about transgender men, while the featured reproductive scientist Evelyn Telfer's research is not directly related to transgender humans. See e.g. two of her latest published articles (on which this MIT TR article is possibly be based):

Workflow optimization for identification of female germline or oogonial stem cells in human ovarian cortex using single-cell RNA sequence analysis

Culture of human ovarian follicles from primordial stages to maturity

Wikipedia about Evelyn Telfer: "She leads a research team which has successfully grown immature human eggs to maturity in the lab, and discovered that human ovaries are capable of growing new eggs."

"Ovaries contain hundreds of thousands of underdeveloped eggs, held in a kind of suspended animation. Each month, one matures and is released—potentially to be fertilized by sperm and create an embryo. For the first time, scientists say they have managed to take eggs from the ovaries of transgender men and get them ready for fertilization in a process completed entirely outside the body.

The achievement, carried out by a team led by Evelyn Telfer, a reproductive biologist at the University of Edinburgh, suggests that viable eggs can be obtained from transgender men even after years of testosterone therapy, which can stop ovulation.

While freezing eggs is an option for transgender men who want children, this typically involves stopping testosterone treatment and allowing a menstrual cycle to return. This can take months and cause fatigue, mood changes, and sleep problems. The need for vaginal probes can prove particularly distressing for transgender men. 

Telfer and her colleagues’ alternative involves taking eggs from the ovaries and maturing them outside the body, in the lab. This new technique could not only help transgender men but also many others struggling to concieve."

A research breakthrough could make it easier for transgender men to have children | MIT Technology Review A new technique means eggs can be grown from the ovaries of transgender men, even after years of testosterone therapy.  It could offer them new ways to start a family.

No uterus, no problem: Mouse embryos grown in bottles form organs and limbs

Want to bet in about 20-40 years women don't have to give birth anymore! I blogged here, here about it.

"Developmental biologists have devised a method for growing mouse embryos outside a uterus for longer than ever before, giving them an unprecedented view of how mammalian organs and limbs form—a process previously hidden inside a mother’s body. Researchers in Israel report today that the new system, which includes rotating bottles filled with nutrients, kept the mouse embryos alive from roughly day five of development until day 11, about halfway through the animals’ 20-day gestation. By that time the embryos have formed hind limbs and all their major organs. ..."

"... Histological, molecular, and single-cell RNA-seq analyses validate that the ex utero cultured embryos recapitulate in utero development precisely. This culture system is amenable to introducing a variety of embryonic perturbations and micro-manipulations that can be followed ex utero for up to six days. Establishment of a system to robustly grow normal mouse embryos ex utero from pre-gastrulation to advanced organogenesis represents a valuable tool to investigate embryogenesis, eliminating the uterine barrier to mechanistically interrogate post-implantation morphogenesis and tissue specification in mammals."

No uterus, no problem: Mouse embryos grown in bottles form organs and limbs | Science | AAAS

Here is the link to the preprint version of the underlying research paper:

Ex utero mouse embryogenesis from pre-gastrulation to late organogenesis

Israeli Scientists Grow Mouse Embryos Outside The Womb With Innovative Method

Lab-Grown Mouse Embryos Form Limbs and Organs The embryos completed one-third of their total gestation outside of a uterus.

Scientists plan to drop the 14-day embryo rule, a key limit on stem cell research

This could be a major game changer if approved! I have blogged e.g. here before about one of the possible future consequences of this research, i.e. women would not have to be pregnant anymore and give birth to new human life.

"In 2016, [a researcher] grew human embryos in a lab dish for longer than anyone had before. ... breaking all prior records. The embryos even attached to the dish as if it were a uterus, sprouting a few placental cells. But on day 13, [the researchers] halted the experiment. ...
For the last 40 years, the [14-day rule for in vitro embryo research], which is law in some countries and a guideline in others, has served as an important stop sign for embryonic research. The 14-day limit arose after the birth of the first test-tube babies in the 1970s. It has provided a clear signal to the public that scientists wouldn’t grow babies in labs. ... Now, however, a key scientific body [International Society for Stem Cell Research] is ready to do away with the 14-day limit. The action would come at a time when scientists are making remarkable progress in growing embryonic cells and watching them develop. Researchers, for example, can now create embryo-like structures starting even from stem cells, and some hope to follow these synthetic embryo models well past the old two-week line.

By allowing both normal and artificial embryos to continue developing after two weeks, the end of the self-imposed limit could unleash impressive but ethically charged new experiments on extending human development outside the womb. ...
Because embryo research doesn’t receive federal funding in the US, and laws differ widely around the world, the ISSCR has taken on outsize importance as the field’s de facto ethics regulator. ...
But such techniques raise the possibility of someday gestating animals outside the womb until birth, a concept called ectogenesis."

Scientists plan to drop limits on how far human embryos are grown in the lab | MIT Technology Review As technology for manipulating embryonic life accelerates, researchers want to get rid of their biggest stop sign.

Here is the link to the official announcement by ISSCR:

The ISSCR Will Release Updated Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation in May

Notes on transgender

Transgender, bisexuality, fluidity of gender and similar related obsessions of our time can not be completely dismissed!

As far as human reproduction and our bodies are concerned there are at least a few recognizable trends that suggest that the gender or biological sex of a human will be less important in the near future:

1. With the rapid advance of medical treatments death and ageing will be further postponed and the life at old age will be much improved. For example, if our mental faculties do not degrade with age anymore or even improve with age, one of the reasons for children becomes less important
2. In my estimation, in about 20-40 years from now pregnancy and birth giving as we humans have known it since time immemorial will be replaced by other means. In other words, women will not have to get pregnant anymore to give birth to a new human being
3. There will likely be substitutes/alternatives available to sexual pleasures etc.

Is The Artificial Womb Coming?

Posted: 7/21/2019

For decades, there have been efforts to create artificial wombs, but, in the past, these were rather preliminary, primitive, and not very functional experiments as far as I remember. These past experiments have advanced our knowledge, but not much more.

However, given the latest scientific and technological advances, the outlook has changed dramatically! I think, it is quite possible that in 15-30 years human babies will not be born naturally anymore. How many women died in childbirth in the course of history of humanity?

Be prepared for the intensive moral and religious controversy this prospect may cause!

Sources (S):

1. Israeli Scientists Say They Bio-Engineered Model Of 'Receptive' Human Uterus