The Avenger's Black Widow was sterilized. How did it happen?
Could she still get pregnant?
In today's episode of InfertilityTV we will explore this mystery .
In the movie Avengers Age of Ultron, the only female Avenger
Natasha Romanoff- also known as "Black Widow" - reveals to Bruce Banner "The Hulk"
that she was forcibly sterilized during her training to become a Master Assassin.
We never learned how Natasha was sterilized. Let's look at some possibilities
and what options there are for getting pregnant.
Surgically blocking the fallopian tubes is the most common method used to
achieve sterilization in women. This procedure is commonly performed as a
same-day outpatient procedure using laparoscopy. The tubes are surgically cut
or cauterized and separated into two.
It is a quick and highly efficient procedure.
This is the most likely way in which Black Widow is sterilized. As she puts it:
"...they sterilize you
...it's efficient"
It is possible to get pregnant after a tubal sterilization procedure.
There are two methods. One method is another surgery to repair the tubes.
This is called a tubal anastomosis.
Basically, the fertility surgeon will remove the blocked or damaged ends of
the tubes and then join the two parts of the tubes back together.
The success of the surgery depends on how much damage was done to the fallopian tubes during
the original sterilization procedure.
The more damage that was done to the tubes
the less likely it is that an anastomosis will be successful.
In some cases, a sterilization procedure may be performed by removing the fallopian tubes entirely.
In this case, a tubal anastomosis is not possible.
A second method for achieving pregnancy after tubal sterilization is IVF
In fact, IVF works well for any type of tubal blockage
whether it was done on purpose or not.
IVF doesn't fix the tubes but it gets
around the blockage by not using the fallopian tubes.
Eggs are removed from a woman's ovaries
and fertilized outside of her body - the resulting embryo is then
placed directly into the uterus. This bypasses blocked fallopian tubes.
In fact, you don't even need tubes to do IVF.
Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus
Without a uterus, a woman can't get pregnant on her own.
This is a much more involved surgery than tubal sterilization, with a higher
risk of complications, so it isn't likely this was the method used on Black Widow.
But let's say this is what happened. There are two methods Black Widow could
have used to still achieve a pregnancy. First, it is now possible to do a uterus transplant.
The technology exists to remove a uterus from one woman and place it into another.
There are now reported pregnancies and deliveries that
have occurred using this method. It is still a very new procedure, however, and a
woman would need to take medications to prevent rejection of the transplant
The main advantage is that Black Widow would still be able to carry the
pregnancy and deliver the baby
A second method is to use what is known as a gestational carrier
or gestational surrogate. This uses the same IVF
technology I discussed earlier, but with a twist.
Doctors would remove the eggs from the ovaries and fertilize them outside the
body but instead of putting the embryo into the uterus of the woman who
provided the eggs, you would put the embryo into another woman.
This second woman could carry and deliver the pregnancy. Black Widow would
still be the genetic parent since she provided the eggs. This method has been
used commonly for women who were born without a uterus; women who have had
their uterus surgically removed and women who have medical problems that
make it dangerous for them to carry a pregnancy.
Lots of celebrities like Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker and Tyra Banks
have used this method to achieve pregnancy.
If Black Widow had her ovaries removed but still
had her uterus, she could have used egg donation to have a child.
Egg Donation is sort of the opposite of gestational surrogacy.
This also uses the technology of IVF
and here's how it could work: Black Widow would select a woman she
wants to be her egg donor like Captain Marvel herself Carol Danvers
Captain Marvel would take fertility medications and have an egg retrieval
the eggs would then be fertilized with Bruce Banner's sperm.
Meanwhile, Black Widow would take hormones to prepare her uterus
and the embryo would be transferred into her uterus.
In this case, Captain Marvel and the Hulk would be
considered the genetic parents and Black Widow would be the gestational parent
Finally, it is possible that Black Widow was sterilized
in a non-surgical way. This could be done by exposing the ovaries to radiation or
by using chemical agents or medications to destroy the eggs.
Since women have all of the eggs they are ever going to have in their life, destroying the eggs
would leave her without any remaining eggs and would make her sterile.
This is what happens sometimes when women are treated for cancer.
Cancer treatments can result in a condition called premature ovarian failure.
There are many natural causes for premature ovarian failure, but chemotherapy and radiation therapy are
unfortunately, all too common a cause
Women with ovarian failure do not ovulate.
They do not make hormones and therefore. they don't have periods.
Women with ovarian failure can achieve pregnancy most easily using egg donation.
just like I discussed for women without ovaries.
Sometimes, however, women with ovarian failure
can get pregnant on their own
This happens because not all of the eggs were destroyed by the chemotherapy or radiation.
It's amazing! Sometimes, after years of having no periods, women with
chemo induced ovarian failure will start ovulating, have periods and conceive.
This is more likely to happen with chemo induced ovarian failure than any other cause.
This makes it unlikely that this was the method used to sterilize Black Widow.
since it is not easy or efficient. So our InfertilityTV bottom line is
that IVF and fertility treatments could have helped Black Widow overcome her sterilization.
But you don't have to be a superhero to take advantage of these treatments,
they are available to you right now.
Infertility gets covered in a lot of popular movies and TV shows
but are these depictions realistic?
Watch this playlist to find out. Be sure to LIKE this video.
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