Recently, the British medical community ushered in a historic breakthrough - a British woman gave birth to a baby after receiving a uterine transplant from a deceased donor. This is the first successful birth of a child in the UK through the "donation of the womb of the deceased".
The mother's name is Grace Bell, and she was born with a rare disease - MRKH syndrome (a rare congenital dysplasia of the female reproductive system, with an incidence of about 1/4500-1/5000, mainly characterized by absence or hypoplasia of the uterus and vagina, but normal ovarian function). When Bell was a teenager, she was clearly told by doctors that she would basically never be able to get pregnant and have children in her life. Therefore, the birth of the child Hugo was nothing short of a miracle for her.
It is understood that Bell began receiving assisted reproductive treatment a few months after completing her uterus transplant in 2024 and successfully gave birth to Hugo in December last year. Today, little Hugo is 10 weeks old. The donor of the uterus was a woman who had already passed away. Her family not only agreed to donate her uterus, but also donated 5 other organs for transplantation to 4 patients, saving their lives. The surgeons involved in the operation said the delivery was a "groundbreaking moment" that could give hope to more women with the same diagnosis. It is reported that the first uterine transplant in the UK occurred in 2023, when Grace Davidson, another MRKH patient, received a uterus donation from her sister Amy, which was a living donation. Globally, about 25 to 30 babies have been born through uterine transplants from deceased donors. More than two-thirds of uterus transplants come from living donors and about one-third from deceased donors. It is important to note that the uterus is not included in the scope of conventional organ donation consent, nor is it included in the organ donation registry or "default consent" system. Therefore, if a potential donor appears, their family members will be asked individually if they agree to the uterine donation. A uterus transplant is a procedure that transplants a healthy uterus into a woman who is unable to have children, primarily to treat congenital infertility without a uterus or hysterectomy. The world's first success story occurred in Sweden in 2014, and about 50 babies are currently born through this technology. The operation requires freezing of embryos through in vitro fertilization, anti-rejection drugs after transfer, and usually removal of the transplanted uterus after giving birth to 1-2 babies to avoid long-term drug risks. Several countries have successfully implemented this technology. The first case of successful pregnancy and delivery with a transplanted uterus in China, the recipient was a 22-year-old congenital patient with no uterus and no vagina. In November 2015, the mother's uterus was successfully cut as a graft with the assistance of the DaVinci robot, and the patient was successfully performed as a uterus transplant. The recipient had her first menstrual cramp at 40 days after surgery, and the recipient successfully became pregnant through assisted reproductive technology at 2 years and 7 months after surgery, and was successfully delivered by cesarean section at 33+6 weeks of pregnancy. Uterine Transplant Procedure: 1. Cryopreserved fertilized egg: a fertilized egg formed by the combination of the egg of the cryopreceptor and the sperm of its husband; 2. Transplant uterus: obtain a well-matched uterus from the donor, implant the uterus into the recipient's pelvic cavity after in vitro trimming; 3. Inhibition of rejection: Like other organ transplants, recipients need oral immunosuppressive drugs to suppress rejection and ensure the stable survival of the transplanted uterus; 4. Embryo transfer: After half a year to a year, the previously frozen embryos are implanted into the uterus, and the fetus can be delivered by cesarean section until the fetus grows to the appropriate gestational age. Content source: BBCNews, The Guardian, official account of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, etc References: Wei Li, Zhang Geng, Zhao Guangyue, et al. Report of China's first successful pregnancy and delivery of a transplanted uterus and literature review [J] . Chinese Journal of Organ Transplantation, 2019, 40(10) : 610-614.
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