WOMAN WHO HAD MALE TRANSPLANTED HANDS TURNS MORE FEMININE OVER TIME
In 2016, Shreya Siddanagowder, a young woman, tragically lost both of her hands in a bus accident. The engineering student, who was eighteen at the time, lost his elbow in a collision. Relentless in the pursuit of her goals, she was the focus of Asia's first upper arm double-hand transplant. Her new limbs are now developing really well. After receiving them from a male donor, Siddanagowder notes that her hands have grown more feminine and are now a shade closer to her own skin tone.
Siddanagowder told the Times of India, "I had lost my hands, but not my spirit and the will to leave," in reference to her terrible situation. I learned how to use my phone, laptop, Kindle, and TV remote with my toes. She tried using prosthetic hands once, but she wasn't pleased with them. She made the decision to undergo a bilateral hand transplant at that point. In August 2017, she registered as a possible recipient of a hand and discovered a 21-year-old man named Sachin who was a matching donor. Thus, Siddanagowder underwent a 13-hour procedure that resulted in Asia's first intergender hand transplant.
Like all transplant recipients, Siddanagowder must take immunosuppressive medications for the rest of her life, but the new hands have been a huge help to her. Her limbs, which were darker and hairier, have changed to a lighter colour that more closely resembles the rest of her body, a development that has shocked her doctors.
Doctors treating Siddanagowder believe that the reason for the lightening of her new limbs is that her body produced less melanin—the pigment that gives skin its colour—than did that of her donor. However, additional research is needed to confirm the cause, according to Dr. Uday Khopkar, head of dermatology at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, who made this statement to The Indian Express. "The nerve starts to send signals—it's called re-innervation—and the muscles perform in accordance with the body's requirements," explains Ketaki Doke, a physiotherapist who treated Siddanagowder. "It's possible that her hand muscles have begun adjusting to a female body."
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, Siddanagowder is one of the more than 130 recipients of successful hand transplants. The 25-year-old will now graduate from IIM-Calcutta the following year. She is able to carry out everyday tasks like getting dressed, eating, and taking care of herself. She can even write again, and her handwriting even resembles her handwriting prior to the accident.