Surgeons perform first womb transplant in the UK

A team of surgeons has performed the first womb transplant in the UK, giving a woman who was born without a functioning womb the possibility of getting pregnant and carrying her own baby.

As detailed in a case report published by the BJOG, both the woman and the donor, her sister, have recovered well.

The married woman was born with a rare condition, meaning her original womb was underdeveloped. Her 40-year-old sister already had two children of her own.

The 34-year-old patient said she was “incredibly happy” with the success of the nine-hour operation, according to the medical team, and planned to have two children using IVF.

The transplant was undertaken as part of the UK living donor programme, which is sponsored and funded by the charity Womb Transplant UK, following approval from the Human Tissue Authority.

The surgical team was co-led by surgeons at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust.

Both the donor operation and subsequent transplant took place at the Oxford Transplant Centre at OUH’s Churchill Hospital. Together they took almost 18 hours.

One in five thousand women in the UK are born without a viable womb and are unable to conceive and carry their own child. Many other women have had to have their womb removed following cancer or other illnesses and conditions, including endometriosis.

A womb transplant could open up the possibility for dozens of infertile patients to have babies every year. While this is the first transplant of its kind in the UK, approximately 100 transplants have been performed globally, with around 50 babies born so far.

Professor Richard Smith, founder and chair of the charity Womb Transplant UK, consultant gynaecological surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and professor of practice at Imperial College London, co-led the womb transplant operations alongside Isabel Quiroga, an OUH consultant transplant and endocrine surgeon.

He said: “This is a first for the UK, following over 25 years of research, and is 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.

“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.

“Any further transplants will depend on the willingness of suitable donors and funding for the operations, which comes through Womb Transplant UK. However, we very much hope we will be able to help other women born without or with underdeveloped wombs in the near future.”

Quiroga said: “It was a privilege to carry out the UK’s first womb transplant. The operations, while long and complex, went according to plan and I am delighted to see that the donor and recipient are recovering well.

“I look forward to the time when this procedure becomes more common and more women have the opportunity to have their own baby.”

The £25,000 transplant cost was paid for by donations to Womb Transplant UK. The transplant is expected to last a maximum of five years before the womb is removed.