Fertility Advance - Or Not

It's considered to represent  a first, a huge medical advance.  The transplantation by specialists at the University of Goteborg in Sweden of a donated uterus in two young women.  One woman had previous surgery to remove her uterus because of cervical cancer, the other born without a womb, and both in their 30s.  T

One of these surgeries is termed by the doctors the first mother-to-daughter uterus transplant.

These women are sterile, absent the biological equipment to carry a pregnancy.  Now it is hoped and anticipated that the women will be able to undergo successful in vitro fertilization to result in pregnancies.  Those pregnancies will provide for the surgeons involved the last word in success of their bold new enterprise.

The doctors will have to be as patient as the women.  A year of observation post-surgery will be required that all has gone well as far as the surgery and the bodies' adaptation to the new transplants are concerned.  Researchers around the world are paying close attention to this new development. 

Fertility experts are understandably anxious to see whether the transplants will result in successful pregnancies.

It does represent a radical approach to fertility treatment in sterile women.  How many women would be prepared to undergo such a track, from hugely invasive surgery to a strict regimen of anti-rejection drugs, to in vitro fertilization treatments?  Better by far, perhaps the use of surrogate mothers.  Or adoption when all else fails.


Michael Olausson, one of the surgeons involved in the transplants felt that the mother-daughter transplant connection might result in a better outcome to "know that the transplanted organ works", and that if the donor is past menopause that has no bearing whatever. 

Doctors will have to monitor how the patients adjust to the anti-rejection drugs to ensure their immune system doesn't attack the donated wombs.

The transplanted wombs will be useful for a maximum of two pregnancies, before removal, to enable the cessation of anti-rejection drugs.  Those drugs have side effects such as high blood pressure, swelling and diabetes, and some fear they may also raise the risk of some kinds of cancer.

"There's no doubt this will be a pioneering step if it's been successful" according tot he chairman of obstetrics and gynecology, University of Glasgow, Scotland.  "At present, the only option for these women is to have a surrogacy - i.e., having their embryos implanted into another woman."

The risks don't stop with drug side effects for the mother; the donated womb would not come complete with all original blood vessels, potentially a risk for the normal development of a baby.  "Pre-term birth is a major risk; a small baby being born.  That's what you'd mainly be worried about", he said.

The procedure might be hailed as a breakthrough, it also represents a highly risky surgical procedure which may result in other, unwanted conditions affecting both the health of the mother and the child.  Surgical experts may always be anxious to attempt all manner of theoretical new transplants simply to prove they have the skill and the dexterity to be 'first' at whatever they're attempting.

Whether that 'first' translates into a practical manoeuvre to solve a vexing personal problem is another thing altogether.