Surgeons perform the UK's first ever successful uterus transplant

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A team of eight surgeons has successfully performed the United Kingdom's first-ever womb transplant.

The patient, a 34-year-old woman, received a womb donation from her 40-year-old sister.

Both women are currently in a fit and stable condition, following two overlapping 17-hour operations.

The patient, who wishes to remain anonymous, was born without a functioning womb due to a rare congenital condition called the Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome. It affects over 5,000 women in the UK.

"We all have huge respect for these two women who have helped so many others in this country who face the trauma of absolute uterine factor infertility," said Professor Richard Smith, Chairman of Womb Transplant UK charity.

"Our aim is to see womb transplants become a sustainable option for women suffering with the same condition," he added.

Patient 'over the Moon'

Many women can also lose their wombs as a result of cancer or conditions such as endometriosis.

Figures suggest that more than 15,000 women of childbearing age in the UK are unable to bear their own children.

A team of over thirty clinicians from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the Churchill Hospital in Oxford formed a special collaborative team for the transplant.

Consultant transplant surgeon Isabel Quiroga said the patient was “absolutely over the moon, very happy and is hoping that she can go on to have not one but two babies”.

The patient has already frozen a number of embryos and is hoping to go ahead with an embryo transfer later this year.

In May, the first woman in Spain to receive a uterus transplant gave birth at the Hospital Clinic Barcelona.

Last year, French doctors carried out their second-ever successful uterus transplant - which had also been donated by the patient’s sister.

The first successful transplant in France was carried out in March 2019 on a patient who is now expecting her second child.