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In the first uterus transplant performed in the UK, a sister successfully donated to her childless brother.
The procedure is a breakthrough for thousands of British women who would not otherwise be able to give birth.
The 40-year-old donor, who already has two children, made the selfless gift to her younger sister who wants to start a family with her husband, but due to a medical condition, was born without a uterus.
The complex surgery to remove the donor’s uterus and implant it in her sister involved two teams and eight surgeons working in neighboring operating rooms and lasted more than 17 hours in total.
Although the surgery took longer than planned, it went well and the implanted uterus is “fully functional,” according to the surgeons involved.
The 34-year-old married woman received the uterus, also called the uterus, from her 40-year-old sister, who gave her younger brother a disinterested gift.
The operation was carried out at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. The recipient, who lives in England and does not wish to be identified, is said to be “delighted” by how things have turned out and is “very, very excited” at the prospect of starting a family.
The 34-year-old woman who received the womb is said to be “delighted” by how things have turned out and is “very, very excited” at the prospect of starting a family and has told her doctors: “I want to have as many children as as I can’.
Although the recipient was born without a uterus, she does have ovaries and produced her own eggs that had previously been collected and fertilized via IVF.
One of her five embryos that have been frozen in storage is now expected to be implanted next autumn at a London fertility clinic.
One of the surgeons who led the transplant told the Mail that she has a “more than 80 per cent” chance of a successful pregnancy.
Any resulting baby would be delivered by caesarean section at 37 weeks to reduce stress on the donated uterus, and the mother then has the option of keeping the uterus for one more pregnancy or having it removed.
Professor Richard Smith, consultant gynecological surgeon to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and one of the two lead surgeons on the groundbreaking operation, said there were emotional scenes as the medical team met the woman and her family shortly after she was given the hospital discharge. ten days after the transplant operation.
His sister returned home five days early.
“We were all crying,” he said.
The surgical medical team was “in tears” following the successful surgery marking a breakthrough for thousands of British women who would otherwise be unable to give birth.
“It was emotional for all the medical staff and for her and her whole family; it was very important to all of us.”
He says you have a good chance of having a healthy pregnancy.
The operations took place in February at Churchill Hospital, part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, but have been kept secret, partly because the recipient, who lives in England, wants to remain anonymous and partly because the team, which includes staff from five different hospitals, wanted time to ensure that the operation had been a success.
It has only now become public knowledge because the details are being published in the medical journal BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The breakthrough could potentially benefit thousands of women in the UK. One in every 5,000 women is born without a viable uterus due to conditions such as Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKH), which is what the recipient of this transplant suffers from, a condition of the reproductive system that affects women and that causes them to be born. no uterus.
Many other women must have their uterus removed due to conditions such as endometriosis or cancer.
Until now, women without a uterus who wanted to have a family were faced with the need to resort to a surrogate mother or travel abroad for uterine transplant surgery, although this was not really a viable option.
The first uterus transplant was performed in Saudi Arabia in 2000, but complications forced removal of the uterus after three months.
The intricate surgery to remove the donor’s uterus and implant it in her sister involved two teams and eight surgeons working in neighboring operating rooms.
In September 2014, a Swedish woman, Malin Stenberg, became the first person in the world to give birth from a womb transplant after a 61-year-old family friend donated her womb.
Since then, around 100 transplants have been performed around the world to women from other countries, resulting in the birth of around 50 healthy babies.
The successful surgery in the UK is a breakthrough.
It could have happened sooner, but red tape — “the regulatory process takes a long time,” said Isabel Quiroga, a consultant transplant surgeon and co-leader of the team that performed the operations — and funding have been a problem.
The charity Womb Transplant UK paid for the operation through donations and charity fundraising events, including bake sales.
Each operation costs around £25,000, although all the surgeons and doctors involved in the operation and planning have contributed their time free of charge.
The team was ready to move forward with a living donor in March 2020, but the pandemic hit.
They now have permission from various regulatory authorities, including the Human Tissue Authority, for two programmes: one involving five women who will receive living-donor uteruses, and another involving ten patients who do not have suitable living donors and therefore , they will look for donated uteruses from deceased donors.
The main surgeons Isabel Quigora and Richard Smith. Professor Smith said “it was emotional for all the medical staff and for her and all of her family; it was very important to all of us.”
Womb Transplant UK have received word of 500 women wanting to take part in the programme.
They say they have about a dozen potential patients who already have embryos stored or are undergoing IVF and who could eventually become patients, one of whom lost her uterus to uterine cancer.
So far they have raised £200,000 to cover the cost, but are still £300,000 short of funding the research programme.
They will use the funds they have for now and Professor Smith says the team will be on standby to perform the next transplant as soon as everyone involved has returned from their summer vacation.
“I think it’s really important that we can offer this as a possible service within the UK,” he said.
‘We know that patients go to the US as they can’t access here, but to do so they have to relocate, which is a very big task and it’s very important to me that it’s available to women in the UK. ‘
Only those who qualify for NHS care, who live in the UK and are between the ages of 24 and 40 (or 42, if their embryos were stored on ice before age 38) can be considered patients of either programme. .
Those who are accepted will need detailed physical and psychological evaluations and will be aware of the risks.
The failure rate of womb transplants is higher than that of other life-saving transplants: About a quarter of all womb transplants fail, compared to just one percent of kidney transplants, for example.
About 20 percent fail with a living donor and 28 percent fail with dead donors, according to a review of cases published earlier this year in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, something the Keio University School of Medicine , in Tokyo, Japan, called it ‘a crucial concern’