Ask Mom If You Can Borrow Her Womb Sometime Because Mommy-Daughter Uterus Transplants Are Happening

Science is forever taking us to new places. What with tiny artificial hearts and babies surviving without intestines, pioneering doctors are making it all happen one innovative thought at a time. But this just in for young ladies with womb troubles: perhaps you should start asking your mother if she is finished with hers.

Associated Press reports that two Swedish ladies are now carrying their mother’s uteri following the world’s first mother-daughter uterus transplants. Both ladies are in their 30s and were unable to have children due to specific health circumstances. One unnamed patient was not born with a uterus while the other lost her own to cervical cancer. The daughters began IVF treatments prior to the transplant and are hoping to conceive. And doctors aren’t willing to high-five themselves for these extraordinary advances until they do:

“We are not going to call it a complete success until this results in children,” said Michael Olausson, one of the Swedish surgeons told The Associated Press. “That’s the best proof.”

Currently, the ladies are reportedly under a one-year observation period. Following that time marker, doctors will start implanting the frozen embryos. However, the daughters will only have these uteruses for two pregnancies max. Following the second baby, they’ll be removed.

Paramount concerns remain with the potential babies conceived with these second-hand uteruses:

“In terms of the risk to the pregnancy, the greatest concerns are the placenta not developing normally, the baby not growing properly and being born prematurely,” said [Scott Nelson, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Glasgow], who was not involved with the transplants. “Pre-term birth is a major risk, i.e. a small baby being born, that’s what you’d mainly be worried about.”

Meanwhile, the two women are now carrying around the uteruses that housed them as budding embryos, which will hopefully in turn nurture future embryos. Cycle of life redux.

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(photo: Alex Luengo/ Shutterstock)

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