Recipient of womb suffers abortion

PUNE: Recipient of India’s first womb transplant will have to undergo a second embryo transfer after suffering an abortion. According to doctors, the 21-yearold from Solapur, who underwent an embryo transfer in February this year, remained pregnant for five weeks but suffered an abortion in the sixth week.

Dr Shailesh Puntambekar, medical director of Pune’s Galaxy Care Laparoscopy Institute (GCLI), where the uterine transplant and embryo transfer was performed, said, “The first recipient of the womb transplant

underwent an embryo transfer in the first week of February. A pregnancy test was conducted after 14 days which showed she was still carrying the baby. The tests were positive for the first five weeks and the hormonal levels were also positive. This showed that the uterus was responsive, which is a good sign. Unfortunately, during the sixth week there was an abortion.”

Doctors said normally embryo transfer-led pregnancy is successful during the third attempt. One of the reasons could be the recipient was prescribed immunosuppressants during the transplant, which may have led to the abortion, said Dr Puntambekar. He said the woman will undergo embryo transfer for the second time in the last week of March.

Doctors at a Pune hospital had conducted two uterine transplants on May 18 and May 19 last year. The first recipient was the 21-year-old woman from Solapur who was born without a uterus. The second transplant was successfully performed on a 24-yearold woman from Baroda who was suffering from Asherman’s Syndrome (scar tissue in the uterus).

“In the last week of March, the woman from Solapur will undergo an embryo transfer for the second time while the woman from Baroda for the first time,” said Dr Puntambekar.

He said that one more uterine transplant was performed on January 26. “There are two women, a 24-year-old and a 25-year-old, who are likely to undergo uterine transplants in the first week of April,” he said.