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PETBioNewsNewsEmbryo transfer for four women after womb transplants

BioNews

Embryo transfer for four women after womb transplants

Published 7 March 2014 posted in News and appears in BioNews 745

Author

Dr Barbara Kramarz

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.

Four women who had womb transplants have had embryos transferred in an attempt to become pregnant...

Four women who had womb
transplants have had embryos transferred in an attempt to become pregnant.

If any of the embryos implant,
this could lead to the first live birth following a womb transplant.
The recipients have functioning ovaries, so their own egg cells were used in
IVF before being transferred into the wombs that were donated by living relatives.

'We have already
begun transferring embryos into four of the women and plan to make attempts
with the others when they are ready', said Professor Mats
Brännström
at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who is leading the trial. 'One or two more will perhaps get pregnant and miscarry, and one
or two won't be able to get pregnant', he told Associated Press.

The first of these embryo transfers was
reported last month (in BioNews 740); however, Professor Brännström has
not yet confirmed whether it led to pregnancy.

Professor Brännström's team
has performed uterus transplants on nine women as part of this trial, which
began in 2012. Two women have since had to have their transplanted wombs
removed: one due to an untreatable infection, and other due to blood clots in
the transplanted blood vessels.

'The women who had to have their transplanted
wombs removed were of course very disappointed, but both of them have recovered
well', said Professor Brännström.

Four of the women also had 'mild cases of
transplant rejection', but according to Brännström, 'after six months, the
immunosuppression could be reduced to relatively low levels'.

Dr Yacoub
Khalaf
from Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals commented
on the trial, telling Associated Press: 'We really don't know if the blood flow to the uterus will increase and
adapt in the same way as in a regular pregnancy. A live birth will be the
best validation that this works'.

Professor Charles Kingsland from Liverpool Women's Hospital also commented: 'There are
questions about how the physiological changes in the uterus will affect the
mother and whether the transplanted uterus will be conducive to a growing baby'.

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Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Comment
13 November 2015 • 4 minutes read

Womb transplants — is surrogacy safer?

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The recent news that the Health Research Authority has given approval to a UK charity to conduct a clinical trial for womb transplants is seen as welcome news for women without wombs. But when compared to the extensive surgeries required for a womb transplant, is surrogacy not the safer option?...

Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
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Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
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Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
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Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
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A boy has become the first baby to be born to a womb transplant recipient....

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
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Pregnancy hope for womb transplant patient

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A womb transplant recipient is set to become pregnant after doctors successfully transferred an embryo into the transplanted uterus. If the embryo embeds and the pregnancy is successful, the baby will become the first child born following a womb transplant....

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
News
17 January 2014 • 3 minutes read

Womb transplants successful for nine women

by Dr Rosie Morley

Nine women have received transplants of uteruses donated by their mothers or other living relatives in an ongoing trial of an experimental procedure at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden...

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
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17 May 2013 • 2 minutes read

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Doctors have terminated the pregnancy of 22-year-old Derya Sert, the first woman to receive a womb transplant from a deceased donor....

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
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Turkish donor womb recipient becomes pregnant

by Dr Antony Starza-Allen

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