The good news is that he got his wife back after he began to succeed / get traction.
If there is one person that you ought to be able to talk to about a taboo issue like that, it should be your wife. In fact, she was perfectly placed to be the "more acceptable public face", and talking to women about his work. It sounds like it would have made the process a lot easier for him.
His mother was the one who left over the fake uterus.