Transplants

[Alan Waites (imported)]

I have just had a thought whilst reading through all these entries.

Is it possible, both medically and ethically, to transplant testes. I am interested in been surgically castrated, but can my testes once given up be given to someone who doesn't want to lose theirs but have little or no choice in the matter.

[jeff_macadams (imported)]

I have just had a thought whilst reading through all these entries.

Is it possible, both medically and ethically, to transplant testes. I am interested in been surgically castrated, but can my testes once given up be given to someone who doesn't want to lose theirs but have little or no choice in the matter.

Cor....Isn't that an interesting question. I think they could be transplanted into another person, don't see why not if the tissue types are the same or similar enough. The problem would come with the need to take anti-rejection drugs in order to keep them. As with any transplanted organ the receiver would likely need these drugs, the side effects of which are not always pleasant.

Also, ethically, would the person receiving them necessarily want to carry testes that could produce another man's children? Would you want these organs in another person, he being able to create your children? Let's keep in mind these things aren't just about producing testosterone, they are also about making new humans! I know, before castration I made a new human boy once (oops! I love him though) LOL

Lots of questions, few answers. Would a doctor even do it?

[ramses (imported)]

Doctors report transplant breakthrough

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In what's being called a major advance in organ transplants, doctors say they have developed a technique that could free many patients from having to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives.

The treatment involves weakening the patient's immune system, then giving the recipient bone marrow from the person who donated the organ. In one experiment, four of five kidney recipients were off immune-suppressing medicines up to five years later.

"There's reason to hope these patients will be off drugs for the rest of their lives," said Dr. David Sachs of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the research published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Since the world's first transplant more than 50 years ago, scientists have searched for ways to trick the body to accept a foreign organ as its own. Immune-suppressing drugs that prevent organ rejection came into wide use in the 1980s. But they raise the risk of cancer, kidney failure and many other problems. And they have unpleasant side effects such as excessive hair growth, bloating and tremors.

Eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs is "a huge advance," said Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, a University of Louisville immunology specialist who had no role in the work.

"It still needs some fine-tuning so that everyone who gets treated gets the same consistent outcome ... It's not the holy grail of tolerance yet," she cautioned.

The results do not mean that it is safe for current transplant patients to go off their medicines. Doing so could lead to organ rejection and even death, doctors warn. And Sachs said the treatment will not solve the country's organ shortage.

In the 1990s, Sachs showed the treatment could work in a kidney recipient who was a good genetic match. The woman, who had an organ and marrow transplant in 1998, has not needed anti-rejection drugs for a decade.

The new study involved five people who received kidneys from parents or siblings who had slightly different tissue types from the patients. Since many kidney transplant receipients and donors are similarly mismatched, there is hope more people might one day be spared immune-suppressing drugs.

The breakthrough has changed the life of a Los Angeles man who was one of Sachs' patients.

Derek Besenfelder was born with a genetic kidney disease. After a year on dialysis, he decided to enroll in the experiment and received a kidney and marrow transplant from his mother in 2005. He took anti-rejection pills for eight months, but then was weaned from them. He has been drug-free for two years.

"I wanted to be off the drugs as soon as possible. I had this huge bloated face and didn't feel comfortable going out in public," said Besenfelder, 28, who works as a communications director for a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.

Doctors have experimented with giving marrow before, during or after organ transplants, while also tinkering with patients' immune systems to prime them to accept the new organs.

Sachs' treatment involved weakening each kidney patient's immune system with intravenous drugs several days before the transplant. After the transplant, the patient received an infusion of marrow from the donor to create a new immune system.

The stem cells from the infused marrow reprogram the body by allowing new immune cells to grow that don't try to attack the donated organ.

The patients took anti-rejection drugs but were weaned several months later.

Four of the five patients developed a hybrid immune system — where recipient and donor cells live together in the body — for a short time. They were able to stop taking anti-rejection drugs and had healthy kidney function two to five years later.

In the one case that failed, the patient had a second kidney transplant and has been on medications since.

Some researchers such as Ildstad believe the "home run" breakthrough will come when more people respond to the treatment and keepmixed immune systems permanently.

Transplant pioneer Dr. Thomas Starzl of the University of Pittsburgh said donor cells appeared to persist in the bodies of the successful transplant recipients, even if those cells were not readily detected.

As promising as the treatment might be, however, Sachs said it won't solve the country's organ shortage problem. Nearly 98,000 people are on the waiting list for donor organs, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

The study was funded by the Immune Tolerance Network, an international consortium of federal and advocacy groups. Sachs plans a follow-up study involving 15 to 20 patients at Massachusetts General and other hospitals.

In the same issue of the New England Journal, Stanford University doctors reported successfully inducing tolerance to a donor organ in a man who was born with one kidney.

Larry Kowalski, now 50, received a matching kidney and marrow from his brother in 2005 and was weaned off drugs six months later. He has been off medications for two years.

Unlike the Massachusetts General cases, doctors said Kowalski has maintained an immune system from his own cells and his brother's. The research was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/200 ... ants_N.htm

[gpb3aol (imported)]

Interesting, if you gave your balls to someone and he impregnated a woman and died could she sue you for support of your genetic children.

[JoaoGenerico (imported)]

Perhaps you could give them on the agreement that they will be not be used for reproductive purposes (i.e. no vas deferens connection?)

[gpb3aol (imported)]

Perhaps you could give them on the agreement that they will be not be used for reproductive purposes (i.e. no vas deferens connection?)

Is that sort of like I won't cum in your mouth.,

[JesusA (imported)]

According to citations in medical literature, the first sucessful human testicle transplant was performed by Dr. Sherman Silber, in 1977, between identical twins. And it was completely successful as it turned out. The recipient later “fathered” four children. Or did he? Were they “his” children or his brother’s?

Nearly identical twins Tim and Terry Twomey were born in 1947. They were identical except that Tim was born anorchic. This means that, for some developmental reason, his testicles had degenerated and were not present at birth. He was pushed through puberty with testosterone injections, beginning at age 18.

Terry developed normally and on the regular schedule. He eventually married, and he and his wife had three children. Tim also married, though, without testicles, he was sterile. He and his wife wanted children of their own.

Eventually, Tim and Terry approached Dr. Silber, an important transplant surgeon, who agreed to attempt a transplantation of one of Terry’s testicles into Tim. The eight-hour surgery on May 17, 1977 was successful, and on March 25, 1980, Tim’s wife Jannie gave birth to their first child, a son whom they named Christopher Gene. They went on to have three more children with the transplanted testicle.

There is a very real question as to whether the biological father of the child is Tim or Terry.

This is both an ethical and a legal question, and one that has no simple answer.

One interesting discussion is in Confused Heritage and the Absurdity of Genetic Ownership, by Lee M. Silver and Susan Remis Silver (Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, vol. 11 (1998), pp. 593–618).

I know of no testicle transplant to date, other than this one, that has resulted in fertility.

[gunner1198 (imported)]

Well if were gonna start switching the owners of testes, whats to say you couldn't give your set to someone with working testes of their own? People could become collectors and have 3,4,5,etc testes residing in their scrotum.

[erikboy (imported)]

Well if were gonna start switching the owners of testes, whats to say you couldn't give your set to someone with working testes of their own? People could become collectors and have 3,4,5,etc testes residing in their scrotum.

To have more than 2 testicles is quite problematic. First - bloodsupply could be inadequate to support more testicles. Then the endocrinal system will suppress added capacity of producing-T which again causes reduction in testicle size over longer period. Perhaps this is not a great deal with 3 testicles. But 5 testicles will generate problems for sure.

[ramses (imported)]

What would be most interesting, is if testicles could be removed and stored somewhere indefinitely. Many chemo patients could benefit from this as they could have their testis put in storage until the chemo is done ravaging their bodies. Would also be the ultimate test drive for the eunuch wanna be.