--- title: Researchers Successfully Implant Lab-Grown Vaginas description: Teen girls born with a rare genetic disorder are functioning well years after successful organ implant surgeries canonical: https://time.com/58153/first-patients-get-laboratory-grown-vaginas/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-10T22:30:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:15:10.845Z article:section: Health og:title: Researchers Successfully Implant Lab-Grown Vaginas og:description: Teen girls born with a rare genetic disorder are functioning well years after successful organ implant surgeries og:url: https://time.com/58153/first-patients-get-laboratory-grown-vaginas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt351542ee59c4c60b/69868a38169ab0143f278c1d/470618753.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: surgery og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Researchers Successfully Implant Lab-Grown Vaginas twitter:description: Teen girls born with a rare genetic disorder are functioning well years after successful organ implant surgeries twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt351542ee59c4c60b/69868a38169ab0143f278c1d/470618753.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # First Patients Get Laboratory-Grown Vaginas > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=70891882-ca8f-4c37-a435-cfe0aebea9e2&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 10, 2014 10:30 PM UTC  Hip replacement surgery, Orthopedics and Trauma surgery, Surgeon, Operating Theatre, Donostia Hospital, San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain Hip replacement surgery, Orthopedics and Trauma surgery, Surgeon, Operating Theatre, Donostia Hospital, San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 10, 2014 10:30 PM UTC Four teen girls have received successfully transplanted laboratory-grown vaginal organs, scientists reported Thursday in the journal the _Lancet_. The girls, who were between the ages of 13 and 18, underwent the vaginal organ implant surgery between 2005 and 2008\. All of them had Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, a rare genetic condition in which the vagina and uterus are either underdeveloped or absent. At follow-up, the organs were functioning normally, and the girls surveyed expressed normal sexual desire. The vaginal organs were engineered with muscle and epithelial cells from biopsies of the women’s genitals. The cells were taken from the tissues, grown, and put into a biodegradable material that is then formed into the shape of a vagina and fit to each patient. When the vagina is placed into the bodies of the patients, the nerves and blood vessels help expand it into tissue. The biodegradable material is absorbed into the body, and cells form a new structure and organ. Reconstructive surgery, the more common alternative to re-creating a vagina with existing tissue, can lead to complications as much as 75% of the time in young patients, the researchers report. “In addition, this study is one more example of how regenerative medicine strategies can be applied to a variety of tissues and organs,” said study author Dr. Anthony Atala, the director of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine in a statement. Other researchers have used similar procedures to create other body parts like [windpipes](http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/13/cancer-patient-receives-a-man-made-windpipe/), [bladders](http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1276240844%5F1681557,00.html), and [urethas](http://healthland.time.com/2011/03/08/scientistis-grow-a-new-urethra-and-possibly-many-other-human-organs-in-the-lab/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/58153/first-patients-get-laboratory-grown-vaginas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/58153/first-patients-get-laboratory-grown-vaginas/"},"headline":"First Patients Get Laboratory-Grown Vaginas","datePublished":"2014-04-10T22:30:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:15:10.845Z","description":"Teen girls born with a rare genetic disorder are functioning well years after successful organ implant surgeries","url":"https://time.com/58153/first-patients-get-laboratory-grown-vaginas/","keywords":["Research","transplant"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt351542ee59c4c60b/69868a38169ab0143f278c1d/470618753.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt351542ee59c4c60b/69868a38169ab0143f278c1d/470618753.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"surgery","caption":"surgery","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/58153/first-patients-get-laboratory-grown-vaginas/","name":"First Patients Get Laboratory-Grown Vaginas"}}]}] ```