Studies In 1896,
Emil Knauer, a 29-year-old Austrian working in one of
Vienna's gynecological clinics, published the first study of ovarian
autotransplantation documenting normal function in a
rabbit. This led to the investigation of uterine transplantation in 1918. In 1964 and 1966, Eraslan, Hamernik and Hardy, at the
University of Mississippi Medical Center in
Jackson, Mississippi, were the first to perform an animal (dog) autotransplantation of the uterus and subsequently deliver a pregnancy from that uterus. In 2010 Diaz-Garcia and co-workers, at Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
University of Gothenburg in
Sweden, demonstrated the world's first successful
allogenic uterus transplantation, in a rat, with healthy offspring. As of 2023, more than 100 womb transplants have taken place, with around 50 babies having been born worldwide.
Notable cases Germany Except perhaps in rare cases of
intersex individuals,
transgender women are born with a male reproductive system. While
sex reassignment surgery can create a
vagina for these women, the option of a uterus is unavailable to them, meaning they cannot carry a pregnancy and would need to take other routes to parenthood, whether it be a more traditional approach involving
coitus or an alternative one such as
adoption,
egg donation, or a
gestational carrier. Nonetheless, at least one uterine transplant for a trans woman occurred, for the Danish artist
Lili Elbe (1882–1931). Hoping to have children with her fiancé, she underwent a uterine transplant in 1931, in conjunction with
vaginoplasty, in Germany at the age of 48. However, she developed a
postsurgical infection and died from
cardiac arrest three months later.
Saudi Arabia The first modern day attempt at a uterine transplant occurred in 2000, in Saudi Arabia. Because the patient ultimately needed the uterus to be removed after just 99 days, due to
necrosis, whether or not the case is considered successful is disputed, but the uterus did function for a time, with the patient experiencing two
menstrual cycles. Members of the medical community expressed concerns over the ethics of the procedure.
Turkey The first incidence of a uterine transplant involving a deceased donor occurred in
Turkey on 9 August 2011; the surgery, performed by
Ömer Özkan and Munire Erman Akar, at the
Akdeniz University Hospital in
Antalya, on Derya Sert, a 21-year-old patient who'd been born without a uterus. In this case, the patient enjoyed long-term success with the transplanted uterus, experiencing periods and, two years post-surgery, pregnancy. During that pregnancy, Sert underwent an
abortion in her
first trimester, after her doctor was unable to detect a
fetal heartbeat, but this is a common complication and may not have been related to the transplant. Following another pregnancy that was initiated with
in vitro fertilisation and sustained for 28 weeks, the patient finally delivered a baby on June 4, 2020.
Sweden In
Sweden in 2012, the first mother-to-daughter uterine transplant was done by Swedish doctors at
Sahlgrenska University Hospital at
University of Gothenburg led by Mats Brännström. In October 2014, it was announced that, for the first time, a healthy baby had been born to a uterine transplant recipient, at an undisclosed location in
Sweden. The British medical journal
The Lancet reported that the baby boy had been born in September, weighing 1.8 kg (3.9 lb) and that the father had said his son was "amazing". The baby had been delivered prematurely at about 32 weeks, by
cesarean section, after the mother had developed
pre-eclampsia. The Swedish woman, aged 36, had received a uterus in 2013, from a live 61-year-old donor, in an operation led by Brännström, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the
University of Gothenburg. The woman had healthy ovaries but was
born without a uterus, a condition that affects about one in 4,500 women. The procedure used an embryo from a laboratory, created using the woman's ovum and her husband's sperm, which was then implanted into the transplanted uterus. The uterus may have been damaged in the course of the caesarian delivery and it may or may not be suitable for future pregnancies. A regimen of triple immuno-suppression was used with
tacrolimus,
azathioprine, and
corticosteroids. Three mild rejection episodes occurred, one during the pregnancy, but were all successfully suppressed with medication. Some other women were also reported to be pregnant at that time using transplanted uteri.
United States The first uterine transplant performed in the
United States took place on 24 February 2016 at the
Cleveland Clinic. The team was led by Dr. Andreas Tzakis. The transplant failed due to an undisclosed complication on 8 March, and the uterus was removed. In April, they reported a
yeast infection had spread to one of the arteries the surgeons had connected to provide blood flow to the transplanted uterus, which damaged the artery and caused blood clots to form. In November 2017, the first baby was born after a uterus transplantation in the US. The birth occurred at
Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, by Drs. Liza Johannesson and Giuliano Testa, after a uterus donation from a non-directed living donor. The first baby born after a deceased donor uterus transplant in the US was at the Cleveland Clinic in June 2019. India's first uterine transplant baby, weighing 1.45 kg, was delivered through a
Caesarean section at Galaxy Care Hospital in
Pune in October 2018. The surgery was performed by a team of doctors at Pune's Galaxy Care Hospital and led by the hospital's medical director, Shailesh Puntambekar.
Brazil The first uterine transplant performed in Brazil took place on 2016 at the Hospital das Clínicas da USP in São Paulo. The 32-year-old patient had Müllerian agenesis, and therefore born without an uterus, and received a deceased donor's womb in the transplant. The recipient was 34 years old, she had
Müllerian agenesis, therefore, she could not get pregnant. Two months after surgery, the patient had her period for the first time and her recovery was normal. She became pregnant, but had an abortion in the 8th week of gestation. After a few months, a new fertilization was able to be carried out and she became pregnant. The cesarean section was performed without any complications and the baby was born weighing 1,125 grams.
United Kingdom On 23 August 2023, doctors at the Churchill Hospital Oxford conducted the country's first uterus transplant. They removed the uterus from a 40-year-old woman and transplanted it to her 34-year-old sister, who had a rare condition,
MRKH syndrome, that affected her ability to reproduce. Prof Richard Smith, a gynaecological surgeon who led the organ retrieval team, has spent 25 years researching womb transplantation, said that the surgery was a "massive success". The recipient successfully gave birth in February 2025. By April 2025, the surgical team had transplanted a total of 4 wombs out of a planned 15, as part of a clinical trial.
Current status The transplant is intended to be temporary, recipients will have to undergo a
hysterectomy after one or two successful pregnancies. This is done to avoid the need to take
immunosuppressive drugs for life with a consequent increased risk of infection. The procedure remains the last resort: it is a relatively new and somewhat experimental procedure, performed only by certain specialist surgeons, it is expensive and unlikely to be covered by insurance, and it involves risk of infection and organ rejection. Some
ethics specialists consider the risks to a live donor too great, and some find the entire procedure ethically questionable, especially since the transplant is not a life-saving procedure. Future indications for uterine transplantation may include those with
androgen insensitivity syndrome who are born with a male genotype (karyotype 46, XY) and present phenotypically female as well as transgender females wishing to bear children. ==Description==