In a First, Pune Woman to get her Mother’s Womb

India’s first uterus transplant is about to happen on May 18 at Pune’s Galaxy Care Hospital. Rupal (name changed), a 26-year-old  from Baroda, is the woman who will go through the operation and get her mother’s uterus in order to conceive a child.

Rupal has been through a tough life. She lost two babies after having full-term pregnancies, four abortions and a scarred uterus. Her array of difficulties has made her so strong that she told Indian Express, “I have gone through a lot and am no longer worried.”

Her mother added, “I am doing this so that my daughter can have her own child.”

However, Rupal is not the only one who will have a transplant, 22-year-old Swati from Solapur will have it with her as she was born without a uterus.

Swati’s mother told IE that they kept thinking that her menstruation might have gotten delayed until she got married about six months back. When Swati went through a medical check-up, the doctor revealed that she did not have any uterus. “What is the use of my uterus? If I give it to my daughter, at least she can have her own child,” says Swati’s 45-year-old mother.

Both their families are supportive of the transplant. A beautician by profession, Rupal went for check-ups and long consultations with the doctor along with her husband.

“My baby did not survive the first pregnancy as there was a cord around the neck, and the second pregnancy resulted in a stillbirth. I had painful abortions. For the last two years, I have not been menstruating due to Asherman’s Syndrome. My husband has seen my pain,” Swati says.

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The women have been admitted to the hospital on Tuesday and every possible method is being used to make the surgery a success and comfortable for them.

“We have been planning the live donor uterine transplant for a year now,” said Dr Shailesh Puntambekar, Medical Director at Galaxy Care Hospital. “The infrastructure is in place at the hospital; our team has perfected the technique. The facilities were inspected by a government team that granted permission to conduct uterine transplant,” he said.

The hospital has constituted a team of 12 doctors comprising gynaecologists, endocrinologists and IVF specialists. A complete floor of Galaxy hospital has been prepared to carry out the transplant. It has been decided by the hospital management that the first three transplants will be done free of cost.

One among the 12-member squad, gynaecologist, Dr Milind Telang claimed that this is the most viable among any other organ transplant. “Adoption leads to legal motherhood, surrogacy to a biological child, but transplant gives the mother legal, biological and gestational motherhood, thus giving the maximum satisfaction,” he said.

So far, 25 successful uterine transplants have been performed the world over with the first one in Saudi Arabia in 2002.

But the transplant did not lead to a successful pregnancy. Then another transplant was conducted in Turkey in 2011 where the woman did get pregnant; however, it did not last more than eight weeks. She had acquired the uterus of a brain-dead person.

The most successful uterus transplant was performed in 2011 in Sweden, where the woman did get a full-term pregnancy and a healthy baby.

Picture credit- Dailymail