Abby Connolly
An incredible medical advancement has been made in the United Kingdom.
This year, a team of eight surgeons at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, England, has successfully completed the United Kingdom’s first-ever womb transplant procedure.
While around 90 womb transplants have occurred in countries worldwide, including the United States, Sweden, Arabia, Turkey, China, etc., this was the first one completed in the U.K., and it is a tremendous triumph.
The surgery was performed on an anonymous 34-year-old English woman who had been struggling to have children because her womb was not functioning properly due to Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome. Amazingly, her 40-year-old sister was willing to donate her womb. Both women were and still are in good physical health.
The patient is married and has frozen five embryos in hopes that she will be able to have children with her husband. All costs for the impressive procedure were covered, thanks to donations that were sent to Womb Transplant U.K., totaling around $32,000.
All of the anesthetists, surgeons, and specialists involved in the surgery admirably donated their time and services for the operation.
The hardworking surgical team was led by Consultant Gynecological Surgeon Richard Smith and Consultant Transplant Surgeon Isabel Quiroga. The operation took nine hours, and over 30 clinicians were part of the process, making sure everything went smoothly.
Once the operation was over, the patient was reportedly thrilled to hear that it was successful and hopes she can have at least two children now that she is living with a healthy womb. After 10 days in the hospital, where her recovery progress was closely monitored, the patient was happily sent home and is currently living her normal life once again.
Around 50 babies worldwide have been born healthy following womb transplant operations from healthy donors, the first being a baby boy named Vincent in Sweden. A large percentage of womb transplant recipients still had a functioning womb one year after their operations.
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