Women With Womb Transplants Are Trying to Get Pregnant With IVF

Swedish doctors report that four women who underwent womb transplants have received embryos in an attempt to get pregnant.

The women are the recipients of wombs from their mothers or other relatives, as part of an experiment to see whether a womb transplant can yield a successful pregnancy, reports The Washington Post. The embryos are the result of in vitro fertilization before the women had their transplants.

In January, the same team of doctors successfully transplanted wombs into nine women in their thirties who were either born without a uterus or had it removed for health reasons. Other research groups are attempting similar surgeries to see if transplanted wombs could help these women have children. So far no womb transplants have resulted in a birth.

The researchers do not expect every woman to carry to term, but are hopeful that a few will give birth.