A woman in her thirties, who was born without a viable womb, has given birth to a healthy baby girl having been transplanted with a womb donated by her older sister.

And baby, Amy Isabel, who was born at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in London in February, is named after the aunt who donated her womb and after the transplant surgeon who co-led her transplant operation, Miss Isabel Quiroga.

Amy’s birth, by Caesarean Section, follows 26 years of research by Professor Richard Smith, founder and Chairman of the charity, Womb Transplant UK and joint leader of the multidisciplinary team whose work has also achieved major breakthroughs in fertility sparing surgical procedures that are now performed worldwide.

New mother, Grace Davidson, aged 36 and who lives in the south of England, was born, like thousands of other women in the UK, without a viable womb, a condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster–Hauser Syndrome (MRKH).  Cradling her new baby, Grace said she and her husband were overjoyed and thanked her older sister, Amy, for donating her womb. But remembering the thousands of other women who are also unable to bear their own children, Grace said:

“We have been given the greatest gift we could ever have asked for. But we are very aware that for many couples who have gone before us, carrying a baby could only be a dream. We sincerely hope that going forward this could become a wonderful reality, and provide an additional option, for women who would otherwise be unable to carry their own child.”

Meanwhile, Grace’s sister Amy Purdie, who is 42, was equally thrilled with the birth of her niece, Amy Isabel:

“What a privilege it is to be able to gift something that in many ways I took for granted. Watching Grace and Angus become parents has been an absolute joy and worth every moment. I feel eternally grateful to be part of their journey,” she said.

The new mother first contacted Professor Smith some 10 years ago to discuss the possibility of having a womb transplant.  After years of waiting, over two years of delay because of Covid and then the lengthy preparation, Grace became the first woman to be given a womb transplant operation in the UK. After her sister Amy’s womb was removed at the same hospital, the implantation was carried out by a team led by Miss Isabel Quiroga and Professor Smith at the Churchill Hospital Transplant Centre in Oxford in January 2023.

Grace and her husband Angus, had to wait until a number of healthy embryos were screened and made ready by a team of experts at the Lister Fertility Clinic in, Chelsea, London, before the sisters could be operated upon on for a total of 16 hours in adjoining theatres at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford.

Professor Richard Smith said the Womb Transplant UK team were absolutely delighted and he hoped Amy’s birth would raise awareness of the need for more research into combatting the growing incidence of infertility in the UK.  “There are so many woman who do not have a viable womb – either by birth or increasingly, as a result of illnesses including cancer, fibroids and the absence of womb lining.

“In recent years we have been approached by well over 400 women enquiring about the possibility of undergoing a womb transplant, which just underlines the size of the problem.”

“We pay tribute to Grace, Amy and their husbands and families for their bravery, patience and commitment over the years and we thank the many doctors and health professionals who have given their time for free over the past 26 years leading up to this wonderful event.”

Transplant Surgeon, Miss Isabel Quiroga, who is also joint leader of the WTUK surgical team, said she was honoured and humbled to find that baby Amy was given ‘Isabel’ as her middle name: “I was so shocked and humbled by this. It is such a privilege to see this happy family today and to be part the Womb Transplant UK team.  After what Grace and husband Angus have been through, having being told she did not have a viable womb, they and our other patients, have shown so much resilience and bravery to face the gruelling preparation, long waits and complex operations, so they may have a chance of bearing their own child. Our patients really are a wonderful group of people,” she said.

Consultant Obstetric Surgeon, Miss Bryony Jones at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, delivered baby Amy by Caesarean Section in a one and a half hour operation.

“It was such a special moment when Amy was born and then started to cry. Obviously as an obstetrician, you are concentrating fully on the health of the baby and checking her over and the health of the mother too – but this was special.  It has been such a privilege to be part of the team that’s been working so long to reach this point.  The operation went very well but since Grace had a transplanted womb we were conscious of the positioning of blood vessels and so it took a little longer. But congratulations to Angus and Grace on the birth of their first child!”

Womb transplant patients must have embryos stored before they can undergo the operation and fertility screening, preparation, IVF and embryo transfers, are all undertaken at The Lister Fertility Clinic at London’s Lister Hospital in Chelsea. Gynaecologist and Fertility Consultant Ben Jones and IVF specialist Dr Yau Thum, lead the team at the Lister to prepare and screen five embryos for every patient.

Ben Jones said he felt a tingling down his spine when he witnessed Grace giving birth after her long journey to motherhood and his mind went back to when: “The moment I transferred this embryo, I hoped for a miracle – today, that miracle is in her arms. This is a testament to the power of science, resilience, and the unwavering dream of motherhood.”

His Lister Fertility Clinic colleague, Professor Yau Thum, said he hoped that eventually many more women suffering from absolute infertility would be able to bear their own children. ”I am so happy that we have achieved the first live birth in the UK.  The team has been working very hard on this project for a very long time and this is a big achievement for medicine in this country.” 

The Charity Womb Transplant UK (WTUK) was set up to raise funds for its continuing research and to pay the NHS for the costs of each transplant operation. The operations cost between £25,000 and £30,000 and the vast majority of the Charity’s funds come from public donations. WTUK has two programmes, a series of five operations where the donor is a living relative of the transplant recipient and a second an approved INSITU Research Trial of ten transplants, using wombs from deceased donors. (See www.WombTransplantUK.org). So far a total of four womb transplant operations have been carried out by the team.   

The Charity needs to raise a further £500,000 in order to complete its research. Its objective is to examine the potential of the procedure and the possibility of womb transplants for women assigned female at birth, becoming a routine operation in the UK.

“The teamwork between The Churchill Hospital in Oxford, Queen Charlotte’s and The Lister hospitals in London, together with the help of specialists from other hospitals, has been outstanding and all of us at Womb Transplant UK are so very grateful,” said Professor Smith.

Ends

Note to Editors.

WombTransplant UK – History

Background

Professor Richard Smith and a small team of gynaecologists and experts in fertility began researching the possibility of transplanting a viable womb into a woman either born without a womb or who had undergone a hysterectomy, in the late 1990s.

Doctors had long witnessed the devastating effects on women and their families and society in general, caused by absolute uterine infertility (the lack of a viable womb).  At a time when advances in IVF were accelerating, research showed that one in 5,000 females were born without a viable womb and an increasing number or women were unable to give birth because cancer or other benign conditions, had led to them losing their wombs.

Surrogacy or adoption were the only opportunities for many women who wanted to have a family and both these options were, and to some degree remain, fraught with difficulties.

Over the past 26 years Professor Smith has collaborated with a multinational team of doctors, all of them giving their time and expertise free of charge.  Unlike in other countries, the research in the UK, which has cost well over £1 million, has been carried out without the help of major grants and without any burden on the NHS.

Funding

• Private, gifts donations and doctors paying the bills themselves have allowed the research to reach this stage.
• The cost of each operation is between £25,000 and £30,000 and is paid for from funds raised by the Charity. The operations have no impact on NHS budgets.
• To date WombTransplantUK.org has raised just over £250,000
• To complete both programmes of operations, the Charity will need to raise a further £500,000.

The team had been ready to undertake transplant operations for several years but the search or suitable donors was paused for over two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Academic research continued however, adding to the clinical advances that have helped tens of thousands of women worldwide, who weresuffering with a number of serious gynaecological and fertility problems, over the past 20 plus years.

The team returned to active standby for a suitable donor uterus in August 2022.

.Two series of operations are planned, approved and underway:

• 10 operations transplanting a womb from a deceased donor (See below)
• 5 operations transplanting a womb from a living relative of the recipient
• Each of these operations takes place at The Churchill Hospital, part of Oxford University NHS Trust in Oxford
• Preliminary assessment, and post-operative care takes place at Charing Cross and Queen Charlotte’s Hospitals in London and the Churchill Transplant Centre in Oxford, with obstetric care at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital.  Charing Cross and Queen Charlotte’s Hospitals are part of Imperial College Healthcare, London.
• The embryo preparation and transfer procedures are carried out at The Lister Fertility Clinic in Chelsea, London, part of HCA Healthcare.
• The surgical and medical team has members from five different hospitals in London and Oxford and is led by Professor Richard Smith and Consultant Transplant Surgeon, Miss Isabel Quiroga.

For the INSITU research trial of 10 operations, transplanting a womb from a deceased donor, donation will only happen following an extra request to the donor family.

Wombs will not be taken without this additional consent from the family of the deceased.  Donation of wombs from a deceased donor is not covered by the Organ Donor Register or the Deceased Consent (opt out) process.

For more information, or to make a donation to support our research, please call:

Neil Huband on 07808 298989 / neilhuband@ BT Internet Com

Or visit: www.WombTransplantUK.org

8^th April 2025