Mother, Daughter Prepare for 1st Womb Transplant

Doctors in Sweden are preparing for what they hope will be the first successful womb transplant. The likely candidates: a mother, 56, and her 25-year-old daughter, who was born with no uterus. If the transplant from Eva Ottosson to daughter Sara is successful, Sara could end up carrying a child in the womb that once carried her, the Telegraph reports. The operation could occur as early as next spring in Gothenburg, Sweden.

A 2000 attempt at a womb transplant in Saudi Arabia ultimately failed when complications forced the removal of the transplanted uterus after 99 days. Now, the Gothenburg scientists say advances in the field mean they’re ready to take another shot, though "technically it is lot more difficult than transplanting a kidney, liver, or heart. The difficulty with it is avoiding hemorrhage and making sure you have long enough blood vessels to connect the womb." Is it strange for Sara to get the same womb she came from? "I haven’t really thought about that," she says. "I'm a biology teacher and it’s just an organ like any other organ." (More Sweden stories.)