SHAH ALAM - UK surgeons shed tears of joy after successfully executing the world's first-ever womb transplant on a 34-year-old woman, calling it the 'dawn of a new era' in fertility treatment worldwide.
English daily Sky News reported the womb was donated by the recipient's sister who wished to help the 34-year-old, who had been born without a uterus.
Womb Transplant UK Clinical Lead Professor Richard Smith stated that this has been a huge success for both the sisters and the medical field.
"I'm just really happy that we've got a donor, who is now completely back to normal after her big op,
"The recipient is also doing really well on her immunosuppressive therapy and has started getting her menstruation cycle, which is an essential aspect of this process.
"We were all in tears - it was a very, very emotional," he said to Sky News.
Smith who is also one of the two lead surgeons during the surgery expressed that he and the sisters were over the moon and that it has been the most stressful week in his surgical career, but also an unbelievably positive one.
Isabel Quiroga, consultant surgeon at the Oxford Transplant Centre, and fellow lead during the operations, said that the team was extremely happy with their success but it is still early to cheer and celebrate.
"We understand this is a transplant and it has a very high failure rate in the first two weeks.
"While we were very happy, we are still quite reserved and those two weeks were very nerve-wracking," she said.
The transplant took more than nine hours and was funded by Womb Transplant UK at a cost of 25 thousand pounds, which included paying the NHS for theatre time and the patient's hospital stay.
However, surgeons and medical staff were not compensated for their time and energy.
Six months after the operation, the recipient is preparing to have her own eggs to be planted through IVF. The transplant is expected to last for five years before being removed from the recipient.
Quiroga added that the plan forward is to focus on living donations from a relative with up to 30 transplants a year, but many women have come forward to offer their wombs.
"Many young women who have contacted the charity said that they do not want children but would love to aid others who wish that experience," she said.
The UK is scheduling a second womb transplant on another woman this autumn, with more patients waiting in the preparation stages to get theirs.