A surgeon in India will attempt to transplant a womb into a trans woman who was born a man — with the view to making them pregnant.
The risky procedure will involve taking the reproductive organs from a dead donor or a patient who has transitioned the other way and had theirs removed.
There has only been one documented case of a womb being inserted into a trans woman in the past — but she died from complications just months later.
Impregnating a trans woman would be an even bigger feat, and would require the use of IVF and a C-section, because they do not have a functioning vagina.
Dr Narendra Kaushik, who runs a gender reassignment clinic in New Delhi, has said he is ‘very, very optimistic’ he can make a success of the procedure.
‘Every transgender woman wants to be as female as possible — and that includes being a mother,’ he is quoted as saying in The Mirror.
‘The way towards this is with a uterine transplant, the same as a kidney or any other transplant. This is the future. We cannot predict exactly when this will happen but it will happen very soon.’
The surgeon has not revealed the recipient or given a timetable for the surgery, but he added: ‘We have our plans and we are very very optimistic about this.’
How babies are conceived in biological females who have a womb transplant. In theory, the principles should be the same for man, using the eggs of a donor. But it has never been attempted because there has yet to be a successful womb transplant to a trans woman
