Swedish Doctors Successfully Transplant Wombs to Nine Women

A team of Swedish doctors successfully transplanted wombs to nine women, according to WSOCTV.

The nine women were born without a uterus or may have opted to have it removed due to cervical cancer. Most of them are in their 30s and are part of the first major experiment to test whether or not it's possible transplant wombs into women so they can give birth to their own children. The wombs have been donated by their relatives.

However, womb transplants-the first ones intended to be temporary just to make it possible for women to bear their own child-are raising some new concerns. Previously, there have already been two attempts to transplant a womb in Turkey and Saudi Arabia but both failed to produce babies. Scientists in Britain, Hungary, the U.S, and other parts of the globe, are also planning similar operations but the efforts in Sweden are the most advanced. "This is a new kind of surgery. We have no textbook to look at," said Dr. Mats Brannstrom.

Brannstrom, chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department at the University of Gothenburg, is leading the initiative. Next month, he and his colleagues will be embarking on the first ever workshop on how to perform womb transplants. The scientists are planning to have the results of their study published soon. He confirmed that as of late, the nine womb recipients are doing well and their wombs are healthy and functioning. The procedure started in September 2012 and none of the nine women as well as their donor relatives have been named due to privacy constraints.