Post date: Sep 18, 2012 8:21:21 PM
GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN (GOTHENBURG UNIVERSITY) - Doctors in Sweden have performed the world's first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants, a medical team said on Tuesday (September 18).
A team of scientists have performed the world's first mother-to-daughter uterine transplant in which two women in their 30s receive new wombs.
The University of Gothenburg said two Swedish women, both in their 30s, received wombs from their mothers in surgery carried out in a hospital in western Sweden over the weekend. The identity of the women was not disclosed.
Team leader Mats Brannstrom, professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Gothenburg said more than ten surgeons, who had trained together on the procedure for several years, took part in the complicated surgery.
Brannstrom said the women were doing well following the surgery.
"They are doing well. All four women are doing well. We believe that the two donors - the mothers - will go home on Thursday and they are up and about. The women who received the uterus will be here a bit longer because they need to get the anti-rejection medication and we have to carefully monitor not only that the women is feeling good but also the uterus," he said.
He said the most difficult part of the surgery had been removing the uterus with the surrounding vessels.
"The most difficult was the surgery to free the vessels. To remove the uterus is a fairly simple procedure and is done on 10,000 Swedish women each year, but if you have to remove the uterus together with vessels that are this long (shows with hand) then it's a difficult operation. Since the uterus is in the pelvis it's like operating in a funnel," Brannstrom said.
One of the women had her uterus removed many years ago due to cervical cancer while the other was born without one, the university said in a statement.
The university said it estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 women of child-bearing age in Sweden alone were unable to bear children due the lack of a uterus.
The medical team said the quality of the uterus was controlled by the ovaries and the hormones feeding into it, and in theory a transplanted, post-menopausal uterus could carry a baby.
Brannstrom said they would have to wait one year before trying to get pregnant.
"We have already done IVF on these women and we have a large number of embryos, fertilised egg cells, in the freezer. We want twelve months to elapse from the transplant - then we know that the rejection-risk is minimal and then like with normal IVF we will put in one embryo at the time to try to achieve pregnancy," he said, adding that the pregnancy would then be carefully monitored by specially trained obstetricians.
Delivery will be by planned caesarean so as not to strain the new uterus and the patient is then recommended to remove the uterus as soon as possible in order to avoid having to take unnecessary immunosuppressive medication. Should the patient want more children, the uterus can remain for a while longer.
Brannstrom said the first baby could be expected no sooner than 2014
One of the two recipients, identified only by the name Anna, said she realised some may criticise the operation on ethical grounds, but that for her it simply meant restoring a bodily function, of which she had been deprived by cancer.
Questions of ethics have been raised with some saying that a uterus transplant was not vital and money could be better spent on life saving transplants.
But Brannstrom said many transplants nowadays could also be life-enhancing rather than just life-saving.
"Transplant surgery has moved from only transplanting vital organs to also transplant organs that increase life quality - that is what a face transplant but also of course a uterus transplant is," he said.
"It feels huge to be able to experience this," Anna said in comments posted on the website of the Sahlgrenska hospital where the operations were carried out without any complications.