A uterine transplant is a surgical procedure whereby a healthy uterus is transplanted into an organism of which the uterus is absent or diseased. As part of normal mammalian sexual reproduction, a diseased or absent uterus does not allow normal embryonic implantation, effectively rendering the female infertile. This phenomenon is known as absolute uterine factor infertility (AUFI). Uterine transplant is a potential treatment for this form of infertility. History Studies In 1896, Emil Knauer, a 29-year-old Austrian working in one of Vienna's gynecological clinics, published the first study of ovarian autotransplantation documenting normal function in a rabbit. This led to the investigation of uterine transplantation in 1918. In 1964 and 1966, Eraslan, Hamernik and Hardy, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, were the first to perform an animal (dog) autotransplantation of the uterus and subsequently deliver a pregnancy from that uterus. In 2010 Diaz-Garcia and co-workers, at Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Gothenburg in Sweden, demonstrated the world's first successful allogenic uterus transplantation, in a rat, with healthy offspring. Notable cases Germany Except perhaps in rare cases of intersex individuals, transgender women are born with a male reproductive system. While sex reassignment surgery can create a vagina for these women, the option of a uterus is currently unavailable to them, meaning they cannot carry a pregnancy and would need to take other routes to parenthood, whether it be a more traditional approach involving coitus or an alternative one such as adoption, egg donation, or a gestational carrier. General interest in uterine transplants for transgender women has waned in recent decades, due to the success and subsequent widespread availability of assisted reproductive technology, and being transgender has become virtually synonymous with being infertile. Nonetheless, at least one uterine transplant for a trans woman occurred, for the Danish artist Lili Elbe (1882–1931), in one of the medical field's first attempts treating the needs of transgender patients to achieve pregnancy. Hoping to have children with her fiancé, she underwent a uterine transplant in 1931, in conjunction with vaginoplasty, in Germany at the age of 48. However, she developed a postsurgical infection and died from cardiac arrest just three months later. Saudi Arabia The first modern day attempt at a uterine transplant occurred in 2000, in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Wafa Fageeh transplanted a uterus, taken from a 46-year-old patient, into a 26-year-old patient whose uterus had been damaged