Healthy baby born after mother gets new womb

A woman who had a womb transplant last year has given birth to a healthy baby boy, the world’s first following such radical fertility measures, according to an announcement by Swedish doctors last week.

Scientists and fertility experts are lauding the development as a way to give women without a uterus the opportunity to have their own children, but critics are concerned the procedure goes too far in treating infertility.

Vincent, which means “to conquer,” was born by cesarean section in early September. His mother, who wishes to remain anonymous, was born with a rare form of female infertility. At age 16, doctors informed her she did not have a uterus and would not be able to have her own children.

In 2013, after almost 15 years of study, doctors at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden performed nine uterus transplants from live donors to recipients. The goal was to provide a way for women born without a womb, or who had lost their wombs due to cancer, to carry and deliver their own children.

In about half the cases, the recipient’s mother donated her uterus. Vincent’s mother, a 36-year-old, received a uterus from a 61-year-old family friend. The new uterus is temporary. The recipients can have one or two pregnancies and then doctors will remove it.

Because the uterus is not connected to the recipient’s fallopian tubes, in vitro fertilization (IVF) is required to start a pregnancy. All the couples went through the process of IVF and stored frozen embryos before the transplantation surgery. In at least two other cases, the womb recipients have conceived and are expecting babies soon.

“This is the last piece of the puzzle in finding a treatment for all women with infertility problems,” said Dr. Mats Brannstrom, a professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the University of Gothenburg and the study’s lead researcher. He said the idea came to him after he had to remove a young patient’s cancerous uterus. He told her she would not be able to have children, and she asked why she couldn’t use her mother’s uterus. He started researching the possibility in 1999.

But critics are concerned about the health risks the non-lifesaving procedure poses for women who donate, a very complex and invasive surgery, as well as those who receive a uterus. Two of the nine transplants in Sweden failed, and doctors removed the new organs due to infection and blood clots, according to a Science Daily article.

“This would not be done unless there were no other options,” said Dr. Glenn Schattman, a Cornell University fertility specialist in an article in The Guardian. “It requires a very long surgery and not without risk and complications.”

Others are concerned about the involvement of IVF. In most cases, additional frozen embryos not implanted are destroyed.

Hospitals in other countries, including the United States, were waiting for results from Sweden and hope to begin their own studies in womb transplantation. Two more babies from the Swedish study are due to be born this fall.