The first womb transplant in the UK has been completed, funded by Womb Transplant UK and co-led by surgeons at Imperial College Healthcare and Oxford University Hospitals.
The transplant was carried out at the Oxford Transplant Centre at OUH’s Churchill Hospital, as part of the UK living donor programme, “giving a woman who was born without a functioning womb the possibility of getting pregnant and carrying her own baby”.
The surgical and anaesthetic team for the transplant volunteered and took part in their own time, with the donor operation and subsequent transplant taking almost 18 hours.
Professor Richard Smith, co-lead on the transplant and founder of Womb Transplant UK, said: “This is a first for the UK, following over 25 years of research, and is only possible thanks to the recipient’s sister who came forward and was willing to donate. It is still very early days but, if all continues to go well, we hope the recipient will continue to progress, and be in a position to have a baby in the coming years. We are grateful to the charity Womb Transplant UK for funding the transplant and to our highly talented colleagues for their time and expertise over many years.”
Isabel Quiroga, fellow co-lead and OUH consultant transplant and endocrine surgeon, said: “It was a privilege to carry out the UK’s first womb transplant. The operations, while long and complex, went according to plan and I am delighted to see that the donor and recipient are recovering well. I look forward to the time when this procedure becomes more common and more women have the opportunity to have their own baby.”
In other news from Oxford University Hospitals, the trust appointed a new CEO, Professor Meghana Pandit, earlier this year.
