A CHINESE woman has successfully received a womb donated by her mother after Chinese doctors conducted their first uterus transplant, giving hope to more women struggling with infertility, a hospital in Shaanxi Province announced Wednesday.

    “This is China’s first human womb transplant. Currently, the donor and recipient are in good condition,” said Li Xiaokang, deputy head of the Xijing Hospital in Xi’an, where the surgery was performed.

    Thirty-eight surgeons took part in the operation, which lasted for around 14 hours.

    A robot assisted in removing the mother’s uterus before doctors transplanted it into the daughter’s body last Friday, said Chen Biliang, director with the gynecology and obstetrics department of the hospital.

    After the daughter recovers, doctors will transfer frozen fertilized embryos into the new womb, allowing her to carry her own biological child. The embryos were created by the daughter and her husband using in-vitro fertilization prior to the transplant.

    The woman, 22, was born without a uterus but has her own ovaries and can make eggs. Her mother is 43.

    Doctors prepared for the surgery for two years, practicing the technique on goats, which have similar wombs to humans, Chen said.

    Uterus transplants are not new. In the 1960s, Britain and the United States began to experiment with uterus transplants on animals.

    In 2000, the world’s first human womb transplant took place on a 26-year-old woman in Saudi Arabia. The transplanted uterus failed after three months and had to be removed.

    In 2011, doctors successfully performed a uterus transplant on a woman in Turkey. Two years later, nine women in Sweden successfully received transplanted wombs donated by relatives.

    (Xinhua)