NEW HOPE for women

After the UK's first successful womb transplant, many could be saved from heartbreak

- MISHAALKHAN, KATE GRAHAM

Falling pregnant and carrying a child is one of the many reasons the female body is so fascinating. As a woman, it’s almost a natural right to carry a  child, so for those who can’t, it is nothing short of devastating. When the news hit the headlines last month about the UK’s first womb transplant, it offered hope to childless women born without a uterus or who had lost one due to medical reasons.

A team of 30 carried out two operations at Churchill Hospital, Oxford, first removing the womb from the donor, then transplanting it into the recipient. The donor, a 40-year-old mother-of-two, decided to help her 34-year-old sister who had been born without a womb, giving her the opportunity to carry her own child one day. Womb transplants are temporary, and in this case, it’s expected to last for up to five years.

The groundbreaking operation was funded by Womb Transplant UK, costing £25,000, and there are plans to carry out up to 30 transplants a year. Although this was the first such procedure successfully carried out in the UK, around 100 womb transplants have been performed worldwide, with approximately 50 healthy babies born. Woman delves deeper, speaking to someone who underwent the procedure herself…

‘OUR DREAMS CAME TRUE’

Jennifer Dingle, 35, is married to Jason, 35. They have two children, Jiavannah, five, and Jade, three. As I picked up the phone to my mum, I could hear the excitement in her voice as she told me there was hope. There was hope that one day I might carry a child of my own and finally be the mother I longed to be.