Swedish Doctors Transplant Wombs Into 9 Women

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Nine women in Sweden have successfully received transplanted wombs donated from relatives in an experimental procedure that has raised some ethical concerns. The women will soon try to become pregnant with their new wombs, the doctor in charge of the pioneering project has revealed.

The women were born without a uterus or had it removed because of cervical cancer. Most are in their 30s and are part of the first major experiment to test whether it's possible to transplant wombs into women so they can give birth to their own children.

In many European countries, including Sweden, using a surrogate to carry a pregnancy isn't allowed.

Life-saving transplants of organs such as hearts, livers and kidneys have been done for decades and doctors are increasingly transplanting hands, faces and other body parts to improve patients' quality of life. Womb transplants — the first ones intended to be temporary, just to allow childbearing — push that frontier even farther and raise some new concerns.

There have been two previous attempts to transplant a womb — in Turkey and Saudi Arabia — but both failed to produce babies. Scientists in Britain, Hungary and elsewhere are also planning similar operations but the efforts in Sweden are the most advanced.

In this April 4, 2012 photo made available by the University of Goteborg in Sweden, the Swedish research team practices before the operations to transplant wombs at the Sahlgrenska Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden. Nine women in Sweden have successfully received transplanted wombs donated from relatives and will soon try to become pregnant, the doctor in charge of the pioneering project has revealed. “This is a new kind of surgery,” Dr. Mats Brannstrom told The Associated Press. Brannstrom is leading the initiative at the University of Goteborg and will run workshops for other doctors on how to perform womb transplants later this year. “We have no textbook to look at,” he said.

This is new ground, and there are no guarantees and some question how ethical this is. Because this isn't a lifesaving procedure and the risks involved some countries will not approve, but as the doctors point out kidney transplants are not necessarily life saving either but people are encouraged to donate in that case.

If this is a success then I am sure with time this will become safer and gain acceptance in other countries.

The transplants have ignited hope among women unable to have children because they lost a uterus to cancer or were born without one. About one in girl in 4,500 is born with a syndrome, known as MRKH, where she doesn't have a womb.

Read more at AP

So there you have it ATS what do you think

Put one in a man and i'l be impressed

Good job on finding the article, awesome read and very interesting. The future has many promises and it is up us as doctors, scientist, teachers and students to always push the envelope and ask those questions that everyone else is afraid of asking. It's the only way to make progress.

reply to post by Grimpachi


1st of all, one in 4,500 girls are born without a uterus??? Wow. Is this world-wide or just in that country? Never heard of this issue.

2nd... what do they mean by "the procedure is meant to be temporary" ? Surely they don't intend to remove it after child-bearing years have passed. I'm sure they probably mean the use of the organ will be temporary, but that is not how it reads to me.

I wish we as a species could just accept that not EVERY F*ing person needs to have a baby. Viagra, Fertility treatment, yadda yadda yadda... Maybe some people where just not meant to breed.

That said, I have to admit that is one serious achievement!

reply to post by haven123


I'll have to agree with you.

If this does happen, I'll set my boyfriend up for the procedure

reply to post by new_here


You know I wish I could answer those questions, but I can't. Everything I know on the subject is in the article.

You do bring up a good question though, just what do they mean by temporary? I think it may have something to do with taking the anti-rejection drugs. I don't think that is something they want to continue the rest of their lives.