Mother Donates Uterus to Her Daughter As China Carries Out First Womb Transplant

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China successfully carried out its first womb transplant recently. The womb surgery was carried out on a 22-year-old woman, Yang Hua (not real name) with a uterus donated by her mother, China Daily reports. The woman on whom the surgery was performed is said to have been born without a vagina and uterus; however, she has functioning ovaries and produces eggs which can lead to her conceiving a child.

The doctors at Xijing Hospital in Xian in Shaanxi province where the surgery was carried out, reportedly spent two years preparing for it, in the meantime, they practiced the procedure on goats which have similar womb anatomy as humans.

Hua said,

“I felt so desperate after the incredible diagnosis but saw a glimmer of hope when doctors told me I could still have my own baby by receiving a transplanted uterus.”

Hua’s 43-year-old mother was a willing donor saying, “In order to let my daughter have a perfect life, I am willing to even donate my life.”

Luck was on the side of the mother and daughter pair as their HLA (human leukocyte antigen) was a match for the transplant.
It was revealed that Hua got married before the transplant and having the full support of her husband, she first went through prior surgeries to form a vagina in April and August. She also had four fertilised embryos frozen for future implantation.

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After a full preoperative preparation, the operation was performed on Nov 20 by a team of 38 experts from 11 medical departments, with the help of surgical robot da Vinci, in a procedure lasting 14 hours.
The hospital announced on Wednesday that the uterus has not been rejected and patient and donor had recovered well. The four frozen fertilised embryos will be implanted in the daughter’s womb after she has fully recovered.

Chen Biliang, the head of the gynaecology and obstetrics department at Xijing Hospital said that Hua’s mother was still young and her uterus was functioning well, raising the chances of a successful pregnancy and delivery. He also said that the successful operation brings hope to those born without the organs and those whose uteruses have had to be removed due to illness.

China has no finite statistics but it has been estimated that 100,000 to 120,000 of the total girls born annually suffer from the congenital absence of a uterus and vagina.