Swedish woman gives birth after womb transplant

Doctors in Sweden have reported that a woman has given birth to a baby boy using, for the first time, a transplanted womb. The 36 year old woman was born without a uterus and had a womb donated from a friend in her 60s.

The baby, weighing 1.775kg (3.9 pounds), was born by Caesarean section at 31 weeks after the mother developed pre-eclampsia, it said.

The woman had a genetic condition that meant she was born without a womb but her ovaries were intact.

The replacement organ came from a 61-year-old woman, a family friend who had been through menopause seven years earlier.

The organ was transplanted in an operation last year.

The recipient underwent in-vitro fertilisation, in which eggs were harvested from her ovaries and fertilised, and then cryogenically preserved.

A year after the transplant, a single early-stage embryo was inserted into the transplanted womb.

A pregnancy test three weeks later was positive.

“Our success is based on more than ten years of intensive animal research and surgical training by our team and opens up the possibility of treating many young females worldwide that suffer from uterine infertility,” the British journal quoted Professor Matts Braennstroem of the University of Gothenburg, who led the operation, as saying.

“What is more, we have demonstrated the feasibility of live-donor uterus transplantation, even from a post-menopausal donor.”

Agencies/Canadajournal