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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It's Friday,

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Speaker 2: the ninth of June.

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Speaker 3: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.

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Speaker 2: You might remember a little while ago that we did

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Speaker 2: an interview with someone called Kirsty who at that point

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Speaker 2: was hoping to be the recipient of Australia's first uterine transplant.

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Speaker 2: And she wasn't planning on receiving just any uterus. She

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Speaker 2: was planning on receiving her mother's uterus.

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Speaker 4: So yes, I will grow my child in the same

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Speaker 4: uterus that I was grown in.

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Speaker 2: Kersey is now officially the first person in Australia to

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Speaker 2: receive this kind of transplant. We're going to catch up

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Speaker 2: with her and hear how she's going in the deep dive.

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Speaker 2: But first Sam, the government have come out pretty strongly

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Speaker 2: against Nazi symbols.

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Speaker 3: Draft laws to ban the public display of Nazi symbols

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Speaker 3: across Australia have been revealed by the government. The Federal

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Speaker 3: Government will introduce the legislation next week, which will also

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Speaker 3: ban the sale of Nazi symbols such as those displayed

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Speaker 3: on T shirts or flags. The ban will not apply

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Speaker 3: to the use of Nazi symbols in legitimate religious scenarios.

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Speaker 2: The Federal government's negotiations with the European Union over a

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Speaker 2: new trade agreement has hit a roadblock. Trade Minister Don

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Speaker 2: Farrell was unable to strike any major breakthroughs while undergoing

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Speaker 2: talks with the EU in Belgium this week. Negotiations are

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Speaker 2: expected to continue.

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Speaker 3: A Swiss regulator has found that FIFA made misleading claims

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Speaker 3: about carbon neutrality at last year's World Cup. The Swiss

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Speaker 3: Fairness Commission That's a great name found FIFA couldn't prove

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Speaker 3: the World Cup was carbon neutral and warn them from

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Speaker 3: making similar claims in the future. The finding is not

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Speaker 3: legally binding.

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Speaker 2: And today's good news. Lance Buddy Franklin has played his

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Speaker 2: three hundred and fiftieth game in the AFL. He's become

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Speaker 2: only the twenty second player to reach that milestone. Franklin's

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Speaker 2: three hundred and fiftieth game came in the Sydney Swans

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Speaker 2: match against St. Kilder and Sydney on Thursday night. He's

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Speaker 2: won two AFL Premierships and kicked over one thousand goals.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Zara, today's deep dive sounds like a pretty unbelievable story.

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Speaker 2: It is, and it's really nice on something like a

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Speaker 2: podcast to be able to trace a news story from

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Speaker 2: the beginning to the middle to the end. And so

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Speaker 2: today we have our podcast producer Nina speaking to Kirsty

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Speaker 2: about receiving her mother's uterus.

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Speaker 5: Kirsty, thank you so much for joining us on the

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Speaker 5: Daily Eels this morning.

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Speaker 4: Thanks for having me Nina. If you can hear Violet

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Speaker 4: in the background, she's supposed to be having a sleep,

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Speaker 4: but she's decided not today. I will just have to

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Speaker 4: go grab her.

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Speaker 5: Well. Good keep me posting. The last time we spoke

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Speaker 5: to you was a few milestones ago, and I want

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Speaker 5: to talk about all of those milestones, but first I

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Speaker 5: think we should give people a bit of a refresh

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Speaker 5: on why you've gone on this journey to get a

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Speaker 5: uterus transplant. In the first place.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So after my daughter's birth in April twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 4: I had a life saving histrek to me due to

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Speaker 4: a postpartum hemorrhage. So I lost eleven leaders of blood

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Speaker 4: and they decided to remove my uterus. So I had

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Speaker 4: a hisstrect to me to save my life.

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Speaker 5: You've always had a plan to have a lot of kids,

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Speaker 5: haven't you?

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Speaker 4: Yes, definitely. My brother's got three kids, and seeing his busy,

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Speaker 4: loud house made me realize I wanted the same for

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Speaker 4: myself and my family.

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Speaker 5: So waking up from that emergency surgery and realizing what

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Speaker 5: had happened, how long was it through that period of

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Speaker 5: grief before you realized that there was options on the table.

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Speaker 4: As I remember, pretty much as soon as I woke up,

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Speaker 4: people were trying to reassure me, the midwives, the doctors

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Speaker 4: that there were options, but obviously not any options for

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Speaker 4: me to carry my own baby. The other options were surrogacy, adoption, fostering.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, I didn't hear any options that were sort

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Speaker 4: of sitting well with me to begin with. I assumed

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Speaker 4: that that was also just like a bit of post

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Speaker 4: traumatic stress. So yeah, I think I was about six

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Speaker 4: months postpartum, and that's when I really hit the research.

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Speaker 4: And I was just on the internet every day, every

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Speaker 4: time I put my daughter down, I was in every

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Speaker 4: Facebook group. I was looking at you know, why can't

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Speaker 4: we do a uterus transplant? Like that's what I need

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Speaker 4: to have a baby. Why can't I have another uterus?

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Speaker 4: So that's when I found the clinical trial.

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Speaker 5: You say it like it's a logical thing, but science

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Speaker 5: has never done this in this country. And yet you

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Speaker 5: were you knew, you knew it was going to happen

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Speaker 5: for you.

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Speaker 4: I I thought to myself, if we can do heart transplants, lung, liver,

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Speaker 4: surely we can do a uterus transplant. Like, surely that's

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Speaker 4: our next step of science and technology. So yeah, I

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Speaker 4: was actually shocked when I started doing the research and

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Speaker 4: I was like, oh, we're not doing that here. And

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Speaker 4: then I was like, oh, we're doing it overseas. Then yeah,

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Speaker 4: I guess I was just fortunate enough to stumble along

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Speaker 4: the clinical trial.

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Speaker 5: So the last time we spoke to you in September,

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Speaker 5: you were aware of this trial. You were a hopeful candidate,

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Speaker 5: but nothing was really sat in stone. Yet what happened

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Speaker 5: after that.

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Speaker 4: We did some bloods and found out that Mum and

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Speaker 4: I were a tissue match and that was a big milestone.

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Speaker 4: And then it was the week before Christmas and both

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Speaker 4: doctor Jana Pittman and doctor Rebecca Dean's had decided this

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Speaker 4: is going to be now whenever. That's when Mum and

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Speaker 4: I sort of really made the decision like yes, we're

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Speaker 4: going ahead with this. And Trial was still getting its

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Speaker 4: final approval for doctor mattx Branstrom to operate in Australia,

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Speaker 4: to bring his team with him, to bring his instruments

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Speaker 4: with him.

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Speaker 5: So he's the person who's kind of pioneered this overseas

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Speaker 5: and now this Australian team's bringing him over to help

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Speaker 5: them correct do their first attempt here.

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Speaker 4: Correct. Yeah, it was incredible. I think it was sort

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Speaker 4: of between Christmas and years We've got the heads up

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Speaker 4: and said, yes, this is going to happen. Your surgery

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Speaker 4: date is the tenth of January. I hadn't even spoken

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Speaker 4: to my work about it possibly being January. It was Yeah,

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Speaker 4: it was a lot.

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Speaker 5: How did the surgery go.

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Speaker 4: The surgery went incredibly well. Mum lost barely any blood.

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Speaker 4: Her surgery was incredibly long. Mine was about half hers

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Speaker 4: so I think mum surgery was between ten and twelve

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Speaker 4: hours and mine was between four and six. But yet

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Speaker 4: it all went really well. I was in hospital for

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Speaker 4: seven days and my mum was in hospital for about

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Speaker 4: twelve days if I remember correctly. He was out for

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Speaker 4: a couple of days and then got urinary sexis and

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Speaker 4: ended up back in hospital to be treated for the infection.

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Speaker 4: But touch wood, since that little hiccup, she's been doing

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Speaker 4: incredibly well.

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Speaker 5: One of the things that really struck me when I

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Speaker 5: was first researching this process is how much more invasive

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Speaker 5: the process is for the donor than the recipient. And

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Speaker 5: I can just imagine how emotionally loaded it must be

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Speaker 5: to ask your mom to go through that. What was

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Speaker 5: that conversation like for the two of you.

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Speaker 4: I was very naive about how invasive mum surgery would be.

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Speaker 4: There's definitely pros and cons of going through this surgery

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Speaker 4: with my mum because we've been able to hold each

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Speaker 4: other's hands and look after each other. But there was

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Speaker 4: definitely some dark days where I felt terrible for dragging

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Speaker 4: my mum along on this journey with me. I was

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Speaker 4: definitely a little bit naive going into this, but We've

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Speaker 4: spoken about it a few times and I said, knowing

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Speaker 4: what you know now, would you still be happy to

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Speaker 4: have gone through this surgery? And she said, yeah, definitely.

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Speaker 4: I think it's also been made sweet by where we

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Speaker 4: are now.

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Speaker 5: Yes, let's talk about the happy pot. Tell me, tell

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Speaker 5: me where we are now.

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Speaker 4: I am very early pregnant. I'm seven weeks. Sorry. That

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Speaker 4: is Violet in the background again, singing the story.

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Speaker 5: It makes perfect sense.

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Speaker 4: She sounds like a magpie, but she's a two year old. Yes,

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Speaker 4: so I'm very early pregnant, feeling quite well. But yeah,

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Speaker 4: I'm just incredibly excited, feeling super super positive about this.

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Speaker 4: Just trying to take it week by week. But doctor

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Speaker 4: Rebecca Dean's and doctor Janna Pittman are really happy so

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Speaker 4: far with how I'm going, And yeah, I guess we

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Speaker 4: just see how this all goes.

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Speaker 5: Let's talk about what that means. Though you are pregnant,

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Speaker 5: but you're carrying a baby in.

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Speaker 4: The same womb that I grew in and my brother.

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Speaker 3: That's wild.

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Speaker 4: Yes, it is very wild. People have asked, you know,

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Speaker 4: how does it feel to have your mum's uterus, your

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Speaker 4: mum's organ inside you? And it feels natural? It feels normal.

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Speaker 4: I felt like I was missing a part of myself

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Speaker 4: when I lost my uterus. Now I feel whole again.

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Speaker 5: This whole process, every part of it, has more risks

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Speaker 5: than your standard pregnancy m h. But what I feel,

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Speaker 5: and tell me if I'm wrong. But the way I've

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Speaker 5: always felt is that you're not just doing this because

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Speaker 5: you want another baby. There's a really strong sense of

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Speaker 5: advocacy and awareness, and you're kind of on this mission

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Speaker 5: to make this available for people.

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Speaker 4: One hundred percent. After the surgery, I kept saying to Mum,

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Speaker 4: if this doesn't work, it's okay. We've both done our best.

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Speaker 4: The team is looking looked after it, so well. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: I'm just feeling so grateful. People keep trying to tell

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Speaker 4: me that this is a miracle. This is not a miracle.

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Speaker 4: This is science. People have been researching and studying and

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Speaker 4: putting hours and hours and hours into the ethics and

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Speaker 4: everything that goes that's behind the clinical trial. So I

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Speaker 4: like to remind people that, yes, we can believe in miracles,

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Speaker 4: but this is science. I'm just incredibly excited for what

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Speaker 4: this might mean for other women because fertility research has

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Speaker 4: come such a long way over the last twenty years.

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Speaker 4: This is just the next step. This won't be a

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Speaker 4: clinical option for everyone, but this is there for the

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Speaker 4: women that do want to carry a baby, women that

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Speaker 4: are born without uteruses with MRKH, women that have had

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Speaker 4: to have their reproductive organs removed because of cancer treatment,

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Speaker 4: women like myself that have had hysterectomy. So, like I said,

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Speaker 4: it doesn't make me any more of a mother, but

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Speaker 4: this is going to hopefully be a treatment option for

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Speaker 4: women that would like it to be a treatment option.

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Speaker 4: Just another array of options that we have. You know,

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Speaker 4: I can't imagine what Violet's options will be if she

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Speaker 4: needs those when she's my age in thirty years time.

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Speaker 5: Cassie, thank you so much for coming on and giving

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Speaker 5: us this update. We're all so excited for you and

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Speaker 5: just hope that everything goes as well and smoothly as possible.

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Speaker 4: Thank you for having me Nina. I love chatting with you.

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Speaker 4: Lots of great questions. Hopefully we can do an update

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Speaker 4: once the baby's born around Christmas.

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Speaker 5: I really really would love that. I will leave you

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Speaker 5: so Violet's good care.

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Speaker 4: Thanks Nina.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us on the Daily OS this week.

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Speaker 3: If you learn something in today's episode, flicker around to

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Speaker 3: the group chat. It will really help us here at TDA.

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Speaker 3: We'll be back again on Tuesday. Until then, have a

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Speaker 3: great day,