Womb transplant could help barren women have babies

" title="Womb transplant could help barren women have babies" />

Women who suffer immense frustration and agony at their "barren" condition need not to distress any more as a hospital in New York is taking steps to offer the nation's first uterus transplant, enabling barren women to bear children.

After kidney, liver, heart, hands and the most recent face transplants, a team of doctors in Manhattan is planning the first-ever womb transplant that would potentially give women, left barren by cancer, injuries or other problems, the ability to bear children.

"The desire to have a child is a tremendous driving force for many women," said Giuseppe Del Priore of the New York Downtown Hospital, who is leading the team. "We think we could help many women fulfill this very basic desire."

Eggs, sperm and a uterus are required to have a baby, and the first two have long been donated to help achieve pregnancy. Now, Del Priore and his colleagues say the womb can be donated, too.

Like most other organs, the wombs would also come from dead donors, and would be removed after the recipient gives birth so she would not need anti-rejection drugs the rest of her life.

The uterus transplant project is being led by cancer specialist Del Priore and Dr. Jeanetta Stega, a gynecologic surgeon, at the New York Downtown Hospital, part of the New York-Presbyterian Health Care system.

The womb transplant project, which Del Priore and his colleagues could attempt later this year, has triggered concerns among some health experts who are concerned about potential problems for both mother and child in such a pregnancy, contending that more research should first be done on animals before trying on women.

Some experts also say women who are unable to bear children can avoid a risky surgery by using adoption or surrogates to bring a child into the world.

On the other hand, the New York doctors, who just finished a six-month trial run showing that donor wombs could be obtained, defend the effort, saying the procedure will be attempted only after careful examination and evaluation by independent experts.

"I believe it's technically possible to do," said Dr. Priore. The doctors have started screening the potential recipients.

Meanwhile, the ethics board of a New York hospital has conditionally approved plans to offer uterus transplants. The board has given its nod to the plans with the understanding that it will reconsider once a patient is chosen.

"We want them to approve the actual patient, not just the process," Stega said.

The cost of transplantation is still ambiguous but according to Del Priore it could top $500,000, including two weeks of hospitalization.