India’s First Womb Transplants

11:30 PM

Making it Possible in 8 hours was A Real Achievement



8 hours and that was it! The task that earlier seemed like a next to impossible task, accomplished smoothly in 9 hours. Yes, 18th May 2017 was the day when we successfully performed India’s 1st womb transplant followed by another successful womb transplant on 19th May 2017 at our Galaxy Care Hospital.

There were a lot of speculations around whether this will succeed or not. However, the success of womb transplant in India that too in the first attempt is an extremely positive step taken in India medical industry.

So far, 25 attempts are being made for womb transplant around the world out of which only 9 were successful. 1st successful womb transplant from the live donor was performed in Sweden in 2012 led by Dr. Mats Brännstrom.

  • It Started From That One Lecture
It all started in 2015 with that one lecture on womb transplant from Dr. Mats Brannstrom at the US. He took 14 hours just to separate the womb from the donor through open surgery. This led me to think of performing this surgery through laparoscopic method to reduce the time. From that moment, I started preparing my team for this womb transplant.

  • First Womb Transplant in 9 hours
On 18th May, we performed India’s first womb transplant on a 21-year-old woman who was born without the uterus. The surgery started at 12 noon and successfully carried out around 9:00 pm. The donor, in this case, was recipient’s mother. Post-surgery, once we saw that the blood flow is normal and the condition of donor and recipient is normal, that was a moment of success for us.

World’s 1st womb transplant took 14 hours to separate the womb from the donor. Whereas, we were successful in completing India’s 1st womb transplant in just 9 hours.

  • Making it in 8 hours in the 2nd Attempt
Within 48 hours of the first womb transplant, we started the second womb transplant on 19th May. This time, we helped a 24-year-old woman to get her mother’s womb. In this case, the recipient’s womb was earlier taken out from her body as she was suffering from Asherman’s Syndrome. This we did it in just 8 hours.

The womb transplant started at 2 pm and was completed at 10:10 pm. Doing it in less than 9 hours was an achievement for us.

  • Not an Overnight Success
It was not an overnight success. I was not only about that 9 hours of the 1st womb transplant, it has been a hard earned effort of two years. I started preparing myself and my team for these surgeries for 2 years. We practiced on the cadaver in US and Germany. Then we applied Pune technique and studied each and every step in the process.

On the other hand, we were also waiting for Government’s permission to perform these womb transplants. We were the first to get the permission from the Government of Maharashtra for 5 years based on our efforts, infrastructure and the expertise that we have in this field.

  • Opened-up New Hopes
The success of these womb transplants has given many such women a hope to conceive their own baby. Earlier, the only options for such women were surrogacy or adoption. However, hereafter a new gateway to motherhood has been opened for women who do not have a uterus or those who have uteruses that do not function.

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