World's first mother-to-daughter womb transplants

Two women in Sweden received uterus
transplants from their mothers, with hopes it will allow them to conceive children
of their own.

A team of ten surgeons completed the first mother-to-daughter womb transplants,
which each took seven hours, at the University of Gothenburg in
Sweden.

Professor Mats Brannstrom, who led the surgery,
issued a statement saying: 'Both patients that received new uteri are doing fine
but are tired after surgery. The donating mothers are up and walking and will
be discharged from the hospital within a few days'.

The women, aged 32 and 37 years, both
lacked a uterus for different reasons; one woman had hers removed due to
cervical cancer and the other was born without one. The women were able to
release eggs from their ovaries and had IVF treatment prior to the transplants.

Their embryos were cryopreserved, so that a year after receiving the womb
transplants from their mothers, they can begin attempts at becoming pregnant. If
successful it will be the first time a mother and child will have grown in
the same uterus. The women will each be allowed to have two pregnancies, after
which the wombs will be removed.

Women stop producing eggs around the age
of 50 but their wombs remain viable for at least ten years afterward. It is
believed the womb remains healthy enough to bear children during this time.
Since the wombs used in these transplants are from the mothers of the patients,
it is thought they are less likely to be rejected. Doctors plan to slowly wean the
women off immunosuppressant drugs, designed to prevent rejection, over the coming year, before
attempting to implant the embryos produced by IVF.

Professor Michael Olausson, one of the
surgeons, said: 'We are not going to call it a complete success until this
results in children'.

Over the next several months, eight more
uterus transplants are planned, with seven wombs coming from mothers of the
patients and one from an older sister. These transplants will provide the women with the possibility of conceiving their own children without using a surrogate mother, which is currently
illegal in Sweden.

Dr Gedis Grudzinskas, an expert in
gynaecology and infertility who was not involved in the transplants, told the Daily Mail:
'This is a potential advance for a small group of women but I am cautious about
how widespread the implications will be. Applicability is limited'.

The transplants were
initially stopped by Sweden’s Central Ethical Review Board, but in May were
allowed to proceed, provided a special committee was first established to
monitor this new area of research.