First Womb Transplant Baby Could Be on Its Way

After nine womb transplants in Sweden, the world's first baby from the procedure may be on its way: Doctors successfully placed an embryo into the transplanted womb of one of the patients last week. Now, "the best scenario is a baby in nine months," says team leader Dr. Mats Brannstrom. "A success would be an important proof of principle that a procedure is now available to cure uterine infertility." The embryo came from the patient's own egg; now the question is whether it will embed in the uterine wall, the Daily Mail notes.

How likely is success? Well, "in the normal population," Brannstrom says, "the chance for one embryo would be about 25%—so it may take some trials until we get a pregnancy." As for the other transplant recipients, "some of them say that it’s fantastic just to have a period. They say, 'Now I feel like a real woman, a normal woman, for the first time.'" Interesting note: The patient's womb, the Telegraph notes, is from her mother—so a successful birth would mark the first time a woman has given birth using the womb from which she herself was born. (More womb stories.)