Keynote: Uterus transplantation, current status and future perspectives

The patients with absolute uterine factor infertility (AUFI) are women with the absence of the womb since birth (Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome(MRKH)) and those who underwent hysterectomy due to cancer, myoma or... [ view full abstract ]

The patients with absolute uterine factor infertility (AUFI) are women with the absence of the womb since birth (Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome(MRKH)) and those who underwent hysterectomy due to cancer, myoma or peripartum bleeding. It is estimated that about 200 000 women in Europe suffer from AUFI. Those patients can achive motherhood by adoption, surrogacy or uterus transplantation. After more than ten years of preclinical research into uterine transplantation using step by step developmental method from the rodents to non-human primates, the group of professor Brännström performed nine uterine transplantation from live donors. All patients have undergone IVF and embryo cryopreservation before transplantation. Due to postoperative complications, hysterectomy was performed on two patients. The graft of the other seven patients remained viable with the regular menstruations. We started to perform embryo transfer about one year after the surgery that resulted in six live births, two ongoing pregnancies and two miscarriages. This is the proof of concept that AUFI patients can give birth of own biological child.