ADVERTISEMENTA pioneering project aiming to enable a woman with a transplanted womb give birth has reached a key milestone.
A trial in Sweden has seen nine women successfully receive transplanted wombs from relatives.
They will soon try to become pregnant and, if successful, the first such women to have children.
The women involved in the trial were born without a uterus or had it removed because of cervical cancer.
The trial is being lead by Dr Mats Brannstrom, chair of the obstetrics and gynaecology department at the University of Gothenburg.
There are attempts in Britain and Hungary to help a woman with a transplanted womb give birth, but the project in Sweden is reportedly the most advanced.
Two other attempts at womb transplants in Turkey and Saudi Arabia both failed to produce babies.
While transplants of vital organs such as hearts are already widespread, operations involving non life-saving body parts, such as hands, have become more common.