UK's First Womb Transplants

The UK’s first 10 womb transplants will be carried out following the success of the procedure in Sweden.

17:21 02 October 2015

Doctors in the United Kingdom has been granted approval by the Health Research Authority to carry out the UK’s first 10 womb transplants in the spring. Around one in 7,000 women are born without a uterus while others lose their womb to cancer.

 

Dr Richard Smith, a consultant gynaecologist at the Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in London who has been working on the project for 19 years, will lead the transplant team.

 

He said: "Over the years I have quite a lot of crisis with this project... but when you meet the women who have been born without a uterus, or who have had their uterus removed for one reason or another, this is really heart-rending stuff and that is what has kept us going.

 

Dr Smith’s team revealed that each procedure will cost £50,000. However, the trial is supported by public donations so women will not have to pay for it.

 

One of the women who hope to be selected is 30-year-old Sophie who was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome when she was sixteen. She says: "To be able to carry my own child would be amazing."