India’s First Womb Transplant - Daughter Receives Mother's Womb

Medical sciences have been breaking barriers and reaching phenomenal milestones. This story about India’s first womb transplant marks a historic moment indeed. A team of 12 skilled doctors conducted a womb transplant procedure on a Solapur resident using a laparoscopic technique.

A mother’s uterus was transplanted in her 21-year-old daughter who was not able to conceive because of congenital absence of the uterus.

This procedure was carried out in Pune’s Galaxy Care Laparoscopy Institute (GCLI). The team of surgeons decided to retrieve the uterus with laparoscopic technique to make the procedure duration short.

The surgery was a success. Donor’s health is fine whereas the recipient is kept under observation. “During this period, the transplanted uterus will be studied,”said Dr. Sanjeev Jadhav, one of the transplant team members. The final success of the surgery will be determined based on how well the patient’s body accepts the new organ.

GCLI has announced another womb transplant today which will be conducted on Baroda-based 24-year-old woman suffering from Asherman’s Syndrome. Even in this case, the womb doner is the recipient’s mother. After two successful transplants, GCLI plans to carry out the similar procedure on a third woman battling with cervical cancer in late stage.

This is the first time Indian doctors have experimented with the womb transplant procedure which was first carried out successfully in Sweden. This surgery predominantly helps women who are either born without a uterus or have a damaged uterus and are not able to conceive.

Doctors have been preparing for months to make sure the surgery is a success. The recipient had to go through ovulation stimulation with the help of IVF. During the transplant, frozen embryos were implanted in the new womb in order to set the conception at play. Once the surgeries are successful, both women can conceive babies with the help of IVF (in-vitro fertilization). The deliveries will be done through C-section, and the mothers will be put on immunosuppressants for life to make sure the donor uterus is not rejected at any point.

According to Dr. Puntambekar, medical director, GCLI, the transplant will not harm the baby or mother. The immuno-suppressants or anti-rejection drugs are safe for the patient, and so are the multiple surgeries.

Though the first two womb transplants were on an experimental basis and thus were carried out free of cost, such complex transplants usually cost around Rs. 7-8 lakhs.

GCLI acquired the womb transplant licence from The Maharashtra Directorate of Health Services. They are authorized to carry similar transplants for the next five years.

Other than GCIL, Milann International Institute for Training and Research in Reproductive Health, Bangalor,e has also acquired a licence for uterus transplant procedures. Two womb transplants have been scheduled in Bangalore sometime soon.

The uterus transplant procedure is complex and there are chances the foreign organ could be rejected by the body. In such cases, the recipient’s organ could be infected, attacked by the body’s immune system or have issues with blood supply to the organ.

According to The Lancet, a British medical journal, the first successful case of uterus transplant was recorded in Sweden in 2012 and the first baby born to the uterus recipient in 2014. Though the baby was premature and was delivered through C-Section, it was healthy.

Dr. Puntambekar told The Hindustan Times that the surgical team traveled to Sweden to learn the nitty gritties of the procedure.

Miracles are waiting to happen everywhere. Medical researchers and surgeons are witnessing breakthroughs one after the other. We congratulate this exceptional team of doctors who made the uterus transplant procedure possible.

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