12 hours after India’s first womb transplant, both donor and recipient ‘doing fine’

The doctors at a Pune hospital have successfully conducted the womb transplant, and the mother and daughter are fine.

More than 12 hours after a Pune hospital conducted India’s first womb transplant by transferring a mother’s uterus to her 21-year-old daughter, a doctor said both donor and recipient are stable and are doing fine on Friday morning.

“Both donor and recipient are fine,” Shailesh Puntambekar, medical director, Galaxy Care Laparoscopy Institute (GCLI), told HT.

Puntambekar along with 11 other doctors retrieved the womb from the mother to fit it into her daughter, who does not have a uterus.

The surgeons retrieved the uterus using a laparoscopic technique, which shortened the duration of the procedure, bringing it down from normal 12 hours to nine.

Whether the organ transplanted in recipient’s body is working properly will be assessed only after 15 days, said Puntambekar.

The hospital has planned to conduct another womb transplant on Friday on a 24-year-old woman from Baroda who suffers from Asherman’s Syndrome (scar tissue in the uterus) and will receive her mother’s womb.

“We plan to conduct the next transplant today at 1 pm,” said Puntambekar.

The hospital has been preparing for womb transplants over the past few months and recipients were made to undergo ovulation stimulation through IVF. Frozen embryos are implanted in the womb after transplantation for the couple to conceive.

The first two womb transplants are being done free although the cost of the procedure is around Rs 7-8 lakh.