Woman donates her womb to sister in first-ever U.K. transplant
By: By Sarah Do Couto Global News
BUZZ NOTE: There is a video as part of this article about such a procedure being done in the USA which can be accessed by clicking on the SEEDED CONTENT link just below this message, which will open the original source article.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Woman donates her womb to sister in first-ever U.K. transplant
Co-lead surgeons Richard Smith and Isabel Quiroga are seen performing the first-ever womb transplant completed in the U.K. at Churchill Hospital in Oxford. Womb Transplant U.K.
In a medical first for the U.K. , surgeons in Oxford have successfully performed a womb transplant between two sisters. The complicated procedure is a form of fertility treatment expected to usher in a new era of child birthing possibilities.
The oldest sister, 40, is a living donor who had already birthed two children . She donated the organ to her 34-year-old sister, who was born with an undeveloped womb. The sisters, who are English, wished to remain anonymous.
Details of the surgery were published on Tuesday in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG). The surgeries were performed by a team at Churchill Hospital in Oxford in early 2023 as part of the U.K. living donor program.
The transplant implantation took more than nine hours to complete. Altogether, the operations on both sisters totalled around 17 hours and involved more than 30 staff members. Both women were well enough to leave the hospital after 10 days in care.
The sister who received the womb is “ incredibly happy ” and “over the moon” about the successful treatment, according to the charity Womb Transplant U.K., which paid for the procedure.
The recipient plans to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) in an attempt to have two children of her own.
Before the transplant, the sister who received the womb underwent several fertility treatments, including stimulation to generate eggs and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to produce embryos. The embryo transfer is expected to take place later this year, barring any complications.
Researchers have worked for the last 25 years to develop the womb transplant procedure, according to the NHS.
A team of eight surgeons, plus anesthetists, theatre nurses and technicians, worked together to carry out the U.K.’s first womb transplant at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford this year. Womb Transplant U.K.
Co-lead surgeon Richard Smith said in a press release that the surgery was “only possible thanks to the recipient’s sister who came forward and was willing to donate.”
“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. “We are grateful to the charity Womb Transplant UK for funding the transplant and to our highly talented colleagues for their time and expertise over many years.”
Smith said future womb transplants will depend on the willingness of suitable donors and the availability of funding.
“However, we very much hope we will be able to help other women born without or with underdeveloped wombs in the near future,” Smith concluded.
According to the NHS, about 100 womb transplants have been performed globally, though this is a first for the U.K. Approximately 50 babies have reportedly been born as a result of womb transplants. The first successful womb transplant was carried out in 2013 in Sweden.
The Guardian reported that another U.K.-based womb transplant is already on the surgery docket for this fall. There are reportedly several other patients in the preparation stages for the same treatment, with 10 brain-dead donors and five living donors on standby.
The woman who received the womb was born with a rare condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH). MRKH, which sees children born without a functioning womb, is observed in an estimated one in 5,000 live female births . Many others may lose their wombs as a result of cancer or conditions like endometriosis.
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Apparently this is not a new procedure. From the article:
However, this is the first time I learned about the procedure, and in light of the obsessive concern in America about different sexuality and transgender medical procedures, it made me wonder if men who transgendrered to women could with this procedure give birth to babies, and be both a father and mother at the same time. Of course that might lead to future confusion for a child born about who is their mother and who is their rather, or for a person who married such a child who had grown up as to what to call their in-laws, mother-in-law or father-in-law. This is starting to make me think of that old song "I'm My Own Grandpa".
My dad loves that song.
It's a real fun song, maybe not to rednecks.
I kind of doubt MTF-TG pregnancy is feasible, at least, not at the present time. It has more to do with biochemistry (the female ability to produce certain bio-materials) that are critical to fetal evolution. Birth, of course, would be done by "C-Section."
The article spoke of fertility treatment and egg stimulation and I suppose it would require hormones and who knows what else in order for creation to occur, although of course I was being a little tongue-in-cheek with that prediction.
I always find these procedures super cool. I would have done this for my sister.
It seems to be a safe procedure, and a way to bring incredible joy to a woman who had been deprived.
An article I read a few weeks ago (I don't remember where) said there were about a dozen live/full term births that used this procedure.
There were 2 caveats;
1- the pregnancy had to be monitored closely because of transplant rejection drugs damaging the fetus causing rejection.
2- the transplanted organ was removed at or shortly after birth making it a "one shot deal."
Was the reason for the removal of the organ indicated?
No. But I guess it had to be like any other transplant. Long term medication.