The U.K.’s first ever womb transplant was a “massive success” that surgeons hope to repeat many times.
A 34-year-old woman who was unable to have children received her sister’s uterus in the hopes it will enable her to one day give birth.
The woman has type I Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, which can result in an underdeveloped womb. Her sister, 40, had already had two children before she donated her uterus.
The procedure involved two overlapping surgeries that took around 18 hours in total.
The woman, who wants to remain anonymous, is scheduled to have an embryo transfer later this year that could finally result in pregnancy.
The transplant took place earlier this year, but was only detailed publicly on Tuesday in a case report that appeared in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Womb transplants are relatively rare and have taken place in only a handful of countries. Surgeons have performed around 100 worldwide, with at least 49 recipients going on to give birth. In the U.S., 33 women received womb transplants between 2016 and 2021.
But the procedures do come with risks and possible complications. Recipients also need to take anti-rejection medication which can cause serious side effects.
In this latest case, the recipient is expected to have her donor womb removed after no more than two pregnancies. Some women have had to have their donated uterus removed earlier than planned.
The surgery was led by Oxford University Hospitals consultant transplant surgeon Isabel Quiroga and Imperial College Hospital London consultant gynecologist Professor Richard Smith, who chairs a charity that funded the transplant: Womb Transplant U.K.
The team have permission to perform 15 transplants, but will need funding to complete the procedures, each of which costs approximately £25,000 ($32,000).
The surgeons hope this first procedure will pave the way for more women to recieve donor uteruses. Many women could one day benefit, including some who have had to have their wombs removed for other health reasons.
The transplant follows some 25 years of British research that’s led to the development of procedures that can help preserve fertility in women with certain types of gynecologic cancer.
Prof Smith told BBC News that the procedure had been a “massive success” and said “the donor and recipient are over the moon.”
He thanked Womb Transplant U.K. and the recipient’s sister for making the procedure possible. He said in a statement: “It is still very early days but, if all continues to go well, we hope the recipient will continue to progress, and be in a position to have a baby in the coming years.”
He said he and his colleagues hoped to perform more transplants, but this would depend on securing more funding and finding more donors.
“We very much hope we will be able to help other women born without or with underdeveloped wombs in the near future,” he said.
Quiroga said it had been “a privilege” to perform the transplant. “The operations, while long and complex, went according to plan and I am delighted to see that the donor and recipient are recovering well.
“I look forward to the time when this procedure becomes more common and more women have the opportunity to have their own baby.”
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