Gold Coast doctor says hundreds of women are interested in womb transplants

Australia’s first womb transplant could be a reality as early as next year and hundreds of women are on a waiting list with a Gold Coast doctor.

AUSTRALIA’S first womb transplant could be a reality as early as next year and hundreds of women are on a waiting list with a Gold Coast doctor.

Professor Ash Hanafy, who is an obstetrician and gynaecologist and the nation’s expert on uterus transplants, told The Courier-Mail that he was expecting an application for ethical approval to begin live donor transplants to come through early next year.

The news comes as the medical journal The Lancet reported the first baby had been born via a uterus from a deceased donor.

Australian medics believe that, with the progression of science, the uterus is likely to be part of the country’s organ and tissue donation scheme, which would widen access to the groundbreaking treatment as live donors are rare.

Dr Ash Hanafy expects ethical approval next year.

“This has been my passion for 20 years and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve dreamt of bringing this gift of life to Australian women,” Prof Hanafy, who is based at John Flynn Private Hospital and is the clinical subdean for Bond University and senior lecturer at Griffith University in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said.

Prof Hanafy is the founder of the Uterus Transplant Research Centre in Australia and has worked closely with a Swedish transplant team. He has been involved in nine human uterus transplants.

The first childbirth from a uterine transplant from a living donor was in Sweden in September 2013 and there have been 11 live births around the world to date. Mother to daughter donations are the most common.

The Swedish team and Australian Associate Professor Ash Hanafy performing a womb transplant surgery.

“I have about 500 women on my database who are very interested in this surgery. They have not yet all been screened for suitability but there is demand. The majority of women have been born without a functioning uterus and others have been through cancer or other illnesses,” Prof Hanafy said.

“If we get the ethical approval we will begin the process next year, of course in reality it will take a bit of time. A woman needs to go through egg retrieval, then surgery and wait some time before fertility treatment. It will be exciting to have Australia’s first baby born this way,” he said.

Brisbane fertility doctor and past president of the Australian Gynaecological Endoscopy
Society Dr David Molloy said that, with the rapid progression of fertility science, the uterus would one day be on the donations list.

“It is exciting but I believe that transplant surgery, even using a live donor, is very complicated and the IVF process is not straightforward either,” he said.

Dr David Molloy believes the uterus will one day be on the donations list.

The baby born following a transplant from a deceased donor in Brazil shows that this path is feasible.

“The first uterus transplants from live donors were a medical milestone, creating the possibility of childbirth for many infertile women with access to suitable donors and the needed medical facilities. However, the need for a live donor is a major limitation as donors are rare, typically being willing and eligible family members or close friends. The numbers of people willing and committed to donate organs upon their own deaths are far larger than those of live donors, offering a much wider potential donor population,” Dr Dani Ejzenberg, Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, who led the research, told The Lancet.