First womb transplant 'within two years' Updated: 2006-09-06 10:34
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Hope: The
first womb transplant could take place within the next two
years | New hope was offered today to thousands of
women unable to have children.
Doctors at a London hospital aim to carry out the world's first successful
womb transplant within two years.
The breakthrough would offer an alternative to surrogacy or adoption to women
who are infertile or have had hysterectomies.
Current fertility techniques, such as IVF, cannot help those whose womb has
been damaged by disease or surgery or who were born without a uterus.
The team from Hammersmith Hospital, along with colleagues in New York and
Budapest, aim to transplant a womb from a dead donor.
Richard Smith, a gynaecological cancer surgeon, said: "We have had stunningly
good results in the laboratory with good blood supply to the organ. We hope to
move into human subjects within the next one to two years.
"The transplant would only be temporary, maybe for two or three years to
allow the woman to have children, and then it would be removed to avoid the
risks associated with a lifetime of immunosuppressant drugs."
Michelle Harvey, from support group Couples Having Infertility Problems
Solved, said: "There are so many people who have come to the end of the line
with IVF and have been told there's no hope. This is a breakthrough for women
like them.
"It sounds drastic but people get to the stage where they would try
anything."
Mr Smith has been working towards the operation for eight years and is in the
final stages of experiments.
His team have transplanted wombs from one animal to another with some
success.
Any child would have to be delivered by Caesarean section because the
transplanted womb is unlikely to be able to withstand the forces involved in
natural contractions and labour.
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