THE MIRROR
A woman has given her younger sister the “priceless chance of carrying a baby” in Britain’s first womb transplant.
The siblings were said to be “over the moon” after the operation and the donated organ is functioning “perfectly”. The 34-year-old recipient now hopes to have “not one but two” children and medics are excited at the prospect of being able to help more women.
A second womb transplant is scheduled this autumn and it is hoped that eventually up to 30 will be performed a year, using live and deceased donors. NHS England chief midwifery officer Kate Brintworth said: “This is an incredible achievement by NHS staff who worked tirelessly over an 18-hour period, giving the recipient the priceless chance of carrying a baby.”
Around 50 babies have been born worldwide after womb transplants. The 34-year-old has five embryos in storage and it is hoped she will start IVF treatment later this year. February’s UK-first at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, involved 30 medics from Imperial College London and the Oxford Transplant Centre.
The donor, aged 40, has two children and her sister – who does not wish to be named but is married and lives in England – was born with Type I Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser. The condition affects one in 5,000 women and means the cervix is absent and the uterus absent or undeveloped.
In total, 15,000 women of childbearing age in the UK have been born without a functioning womb or had it removed due to cancer. Until now, their only chance of having a genetically-related child was through a surrogate. Professor Richard Smith, a consultant gynaecological surgeon at Imperial who led the procedure, said: “You’ve got girls who have not had periods. A scan shows no uterus. Catastrophe. Up until now, there’s been no solution, other than adoption or surrogacy. That’s not the case now. This is really exciting.”
During the procedure, detailed in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, medics spent eight hours 12 minutes removing the donor’s womb, cervix and fallopian tubes, then operated on her sister for nine hours 20 minutes. After 10 days, the recipient was well enough to leave hospital.
