Oxford surgeons perform UK’s first womb transplant

The 34-year-old married woman received the organ – also called the uterus – during an operation lasting nine hours and 20 minutes at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, which is part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, on a Sunday in early February.

The transplant has been described as “a milestone” and surgeons believe there could be 20 to 30 per year for the foreseeable future.

READ MORE: Oxford student's death in lake ruled suicide at inquest

“I think it was probably the most stressful week in my surgical career but also unbelievably positive,” said lead surgeon Professor Richard Smith, clinical lead at the charity Womb Transplant UK and consultant gynaecological surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

The other lead, Isabel Quiroga, consultant surgeon at the Oxford Transplant Centre, part of Oxford University Hospitals, added that she was “thrilled”, and that, following the operation, transplant staff were still taking it all in.

The recipient, who lives in England and does not wish to be named, has stored embryos with the aim of undergoing IVF later this year.

She was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH), a rare condition in which women have an underdeveloped vagina and underdeveloped or missing womb.

However, their ovaries are intact and still function to produce eggs and female hormones, making conceiving via fertility treatment a possibility.

The woman’s sister, 40, has completed her own family by giving birth to two children, and was willing to donate her womb.

Professor Smith said the day of the surgery, which involved more than 30 staff, was a “big and long day”.

“All of the surgical staff met at 7am and we were back in our hotel at 6.30am the following morning,” he said.

Asked if they felt nervous going into theatre, Prof Smith said: “Not nervous, I would say focused and well aware that failure was not an option.”

He added: “The operation surgically has been incredibly successful.

“The donor and the recipient are two absolutely lovely women. We couldn’t have a better result.”

Professor Smith said that, at present, the transplanted womb is “functioning exactly as it should” and the plans for IVF are on track.

The transplant is expected to last for a maximum of five years before the womb is removed.

A second UK womb transplant on another woman is scheduled to take place this autumn, with more patients in the preparation stages.

Asked how many could benefit from womb transplants in future, Prof Smith said: “Realistically you’re talking maximum numbers of 20 to 30 per year on the living donor side for the foreseeable future.

“My guess is that, in future, there’ll be a centre which is based here or between Oxford and Imperial, and another centre in the north.”