U.S. doctors plan groundbreaking womb transplant
Updated Wed. Jan. 17 2007 11:20 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A team of New York doctors is preparing to perform the first-ever womb transplant in the U.S.
It will be the second time the procedure has been attempted, the British Broadcasting Corporation reports.
The first attempt, which was unsuccessful, was made in Saudi Arabia in 2000. The transplanted womb was taken from a live donor, but was rejected by the host after three months.
In this case, doctors plan to use a womb from a woman who has died, the BBC reports.
If it works, the procedure would renew hope for the millions of women around the world whose wombs have been removed or damaged due cancer, accidents, pregnancy complications or other problems.
The team based in Manhattan has been screening women who have been left barren, but still want to have children.
Over the past six months, the doctors have been running trial tests, and now say they have confirmed that the womb of a deceased donor can be removed in the same way as hearts, kidneys, and livers.
The next step, the doctors say, will be to insert the donated uterus in a recipient through an incision below the navel.
Then the recipient's own embryo would be placed inside the transplanted womb.
The birth procedure itself would be done using a caesarean section procedure, after which the transplanted womb would be removed from the host due to the risk of rejection.
"Transplant medicine has improved sufficiently to allow us to consider non-vital transplants," Dr. Giuseppe Del Priore, who is heading up the team, told the BBC.
"That is why we are talking about face, hands, and other things as well."
The procedure could go ahead later this year.
However, objections have arisen among transplant experts, fertility specialists and medical ethicists, who argue the procedure requires more extensive animal testing before it can be tried on a human.
At the University of Miami/Jackson Medical Center, the Transplantation Program is also working towards a womb transplant, but is doing extensive animal testing and it will be at least another year before a human procedure takes place.
''There is a whole team here working on this,'' said Dr. Andreas Tzakis, director of the Transplantation Program told The Washington Post.
"We want to complete the entire experiment in animals -- including labor and delivery -- before we go into humans.''
The New York team's efforts have sparked controversy.
"At any time during the nine months of pregnancy it could very easily reject, and if a pregnant uterus rejects you have got a serious medical problem," said infertility expert Dr. Sherman Silber.
However, the New York doctors argue the risks can be minimized and the successful completion of the project would give new hope to many infertile women.
Hundreds of women have already made inquiries about the procedure at the Downtown Hospital in Manhattan. Between 40 and 50 are currently being screened, the BBC reports.
