OXFORD
\nSurgeons have performed the UK\u2019s first womb transplant on a woman whose sister was the living donor.
\nDuring an operation lasting nine hours and 20 minutes at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, the woman, 34, received the womb.
\nHer sister, 40, was willing to donate her womb after completing her own family by giving birth to two children.
\nThe woman who received the womb lives in England and does not wish to be named. She has stored embryos to undergo IVF later this year.
\nThe lead surgeons for the transplant, which took place on a Sunday in early February, were Prof Richard Smith, clinical lead at the charity Womb Transplant UK and consultant gynaecological surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and Isabel Quiroga, consultant surgeon at the Oxford Transplant Centre, part of Oxford University Hospitals.
\nProf Smith told reporters the experience had been \u201cquite remarkable\u201d, adding that the operation had been a \u201cmassive success\u201d.
\n\u201cIt was incredible. I think it was probably the most stressful week in my surgical career but also unbelievably positive,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cThe donor and recipient are over the Moon, just over the Moon.
\n\u201cI\u2019m just really happy that we\u2019ve got a donor who is completely back to normal after her big op and the recipient is, after her big op, doing really well on her immunosuppressive therapy and looking forward to hopefully having a baby.\u201d
\nMs Quiroga said she was \u201cthrilled\u201d, adding that, following the operation, transplant staff were still cautiously taking it all in.
\n\u201cIt was a very proud moment but still quite reserved \u2013 the first two weeks after the operation are nerve-racking,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, I feel extremely proud of what we\u2019ve achieved and desperately happy for her.\u201d
\nMs Quiroga said the patient was \u201cincredibly happy\u201d, adding: \u201cShe was absolutely over the moon, very happy and is hoping that she can go on to have not one but two babies. \u201cHer womb is functioning perfectly and we are monitoring her progress very closely.\u201d
\nThe woman receiving the womb was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH), a rare condition that affects around one in every 5,000 women. In MRKH, women have an underdeveloped vagina and an underdeveloped or missing womb. The first sign of the condition is when a teenage girl does not have periods.
\nHowever, their ovaries are intact and still function to produce eggs and female hormones, making conceiving via fertility treatment a possibility. Before receiving her new womb, the woman had two rounds of fertility stimulation to produce eggs, followed by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to create embryos.
\nEight embryos have reached the blastocyst stage \u2013 which means they have a good chance of success in IVF \u2013 and were frozen for when the patient undergoes treatment at the Lister Fertility Clinic in central London later this year.
\nProf Smith said that, at present, the transplanted womb is \u201cfunctioning exactly as it should\u201d and the plans for IVF are on track. The woman will need to take immunosuppressant drugs throughout any future pregnancy to prevent her body from rejecting the donor organ.
\nThe transplant is expected to last for a maximum of five years before the womb is removed. A second UK womb transplant on another woman is scheduled to take place this autumn, with more patients in the preparation stages.
\n\u201cThe operation surgically has been incredibly successful,\u201d Prof Smith said. \u201cThe donor and the recipient are two absolutely lovely women. We couldn\u2019t have a better result. \u201cPeople say we must feel proud, actually we feel relieved.
\n\u201cI feel emotional about it all. The first consultation with the recipient post-op, we were all almost in tears.\u201d He said the day of the surgery, which involved more than 30 staff, was a \u201cbig and long day\u201d. The operation to remove the older sister\u2019s womb took eight hours and 12 minutes.
\nAn hour before the womb was extracted, surgeons began operating on the younger sister. \u201cAll of the surgical staff met at 7am and we were back in our hotel at 6.30am the following morning,\u201d Prof Smith said.
\nAsked if they felt nervous going into theatre, Prof Smith said: \u201cNot nervous, I would say focused and well aware that failure was not an option.\u201d \u201cRichard has been preparing for this for 25 years, I\u2019ve been involved for nine, and we were fully ready to go way before Covid happened,\u201d Ms Quiroga said
\n\u201cSo, we are just delighted that this day had come. \u201cThe whole team worked extremely well, it was an incredibly proud moment. It was such an amazing feeling.\u201d
\nBefore surgery, both sisters underwent extensive counselling and were reviewed by gynaecologists, transplant surgeons, obstetricians, psychologists, anaesthetists and pharmacists.
\nThey were also assessed by a Human Tissue Authority independent assessor to ensure they were aware of the risks and to confirm they were entering into the surgery of their own free will.
\nThe case was also reviewed by an HTA panel before permission was granted to proceed. The transplant cost of around \u00a325,000 ($32,000) was paid for by donations to the Womb Transplant UK charity.
\nThis included paying the NHS for theatre time (the transplant happened when the operating room was not being used for NHS work), plus the patient\u2019s hospital stay. Surgeons and medical staff involved in the transplant were not paid for their time. Prof Smith said he was looking forward to when the patient can undergo IVF. \u201cHopefully that embryo will take, and hopefully nine months later she\u2019ll (have a) Caesarean section,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cOnce she\u2019s had a Caesarean section, she does have a choice \u2013 six months later \u2013 of a complete hysterectomy or to go and have another baby.
\n\u201cWe know right now she wants to have another baby, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d \u201cThe reason why we\u2019re waiting and not going straight for IVF is because we want to make sure she\u2019s stable and the transplant is stable, and so far she\u2019s been very, very stable,\u201d Ms Quiroga said.
\nIf the woman falls pregnant, she will be cared for in a specialist antenatal clinic at Queen Charlotte\u2019s and Chelsea Hospital, where the delivery would also take place.
\nTo date, Womb Transplant UK has approval for 10 operations involving brain-dead donors plus five using a living donor, most likely a womb from a sister or mother. It currently has enough funds for four of these operations.
\nTo be eligible for the programme, women must live in the UK and be aged 24 to 40 (or 42 if embryos are frozen before the age of 38).
\nMore than 500 women have contacted the charity over the years. Around 50 are currently going through checks, with a smaller number at an advanced stage.
\nAsked how many could benefit from womb transplants in future, Prof Smith said: \u201cRealistically you\u2019re talking maximum numbers of 20 to 30 per year on the living donor side for the foreseeable future.
\n\u201cMy guess is that, in future, there\u2019ll be a centre which is based here or between Oxford and Imperial, and another centre in the north.\u201d The team also hopes to eventually use living donors who are not relatives but are offering their organs altruistically.
\n\u201cWe have women contacting the charity \u2026 such as young women who say \u2018I don\u2019t want to have children but I would love to help others have a child\u2019 or\u2019 I\u2019ve already had my children I would love other women to have that experience\u2019,\u201d Ms Quiroga said.
\n\u201cSo yes, there will definitely be a time in which that is a main source of donors.\u201d
\nNHS England chief midwifery officer Kate Brintworth welcomed the \u201cpotentially exciting development for the NHS\u201d which would give the recipient \u201cthe priceless chance of carrying a baby\u201d.
\n\u201cOn behalf of the whole health service, I would like to send my best wishes for a speedy recovery to the donor and recipient on what is an amazing milestone,\u201d she added. \u201cThis is an excellent and highly significant achievement, being the first uterine transplant to be performed in the UK and I congratulate the Oxford\/London team,\u201d said Adam Balen of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OXFORD Surgeons have performed the UK\u2019s first womb transplant on a woman whose sister was the living donor. During an operation lasting nine hours and 20 minutes at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, the woman, 34, received the womb. Her sister, 40, was willing to donate her womb after completing her own family by giving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-351207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n