World's first mother-daughter womb transplant in Gothenburg
The world's first mother-daughter womb transplant has been carried out by surgeons in Gothenburg, reports news agency TT. The complex operations involving four women - two donors and two recipients- took place over the weekend at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital where research into uterus (womb) transplantation has been ongoing for 12 years.
One of the recipients had previously had her uterus removed during treatment for cervical cancer while the second woman was born without a uterus. TT reports that both recipients are in their thirties.
Doctor Mats Brännström, says in a press statement that the operations were carried out without complications and that all four women are well.
Researchers at the hospital selected ten pairs of donors and recipients in 2011 as part of an investigation into uterus transplantion.
"We have been experimenting on rats, mice, sheep and baboons and feel we are ready to take the next step," Mats Brännström told Radio Sweden in 2011.
He said that the plan is for the first five or six women who receive the transplants to wait for one year before pregnancy.
One of the mother-daughter couples told tabloid Expressen last year that they were grateful to have the opportunity.
"I have been given an opportunity I did not think was possible," the 25-year old woman born without a uterus told the tabloid.
Her 56-year-old mother, who lives in England, told the Daily Telegraph . " "My daughter and I are both very rational people and we both think 'it's just a womb. She needs the womb and if I'm the best donor for her … well, go on. She needs it more than me. I've had two daughters so it's served me well."
In Sweden, researchers say there are 3000 women who are infertile due to an inoperative or absent uterus.
It is not the first time that a uterus transplant has taken place between living donors and recipients. In Saudia Arabia in 2000, a 26-year- old woman, who'd lost her own uterus during the birth of her first child, received a donated womb from an unrelated woman. The operation though was not a success.
