Swedish medical team hoping for world first as women born without uterus or who lost it to cancer get embryo transfers 
 
 Four of nine women given pioneering womb transplants in Sweden have now also had embryos transferred, the pioneering Swedish doctor treating them has said. 
 
 Dr Mats Brannstrom, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Gothenburg University, said his team had embarked on a programme of embryo transfer for the women, who were either born without a womb or lost it as a result of cancer. All have ovaries so were able to produce eggs that were fertilised using IVF. 
 
 Brannstrom predicted that three or four of the nine women might succeed in giving birth, which would be a world first. Other womb transplants have taken place in Saudi Arabia and Turkey but no recipients have yet managed to have a child. A pregnancy was achieved in Turkey, but it failed after two months. 
 
 "We have already begun transferring embryos into four of the women and plan to make attempts with the others when they are ready," said Brannstrom. He would not say whether any of the women were pregnant at the moment. In a study published last week, the team said that there were "mild rejection episodes" in four women who received donated wombs. Two patients had to have the uterus removed because of complications. 
 
 Brannstrom's technique is controversial because he is accepting wombs donated by living women, who are relatives or friends of his patients. Elsewhere, wombs from dead donors have been used. 
 
 Dr Richard Smith, head of the UK charity Womb Transplant UK, which is trying to raise money to carry out transplants here, has said that large chunks of blood vessels had to be removed from the donor as well as the uterus itself, raising the risks of the operation for the donor. In the UK, there would be ethical questions because the operation is not a life-saving procedure, he said. 
 
 The women will have to take drugs throughout their pregnancy to ensure their body does not reject the organ. They will also have to be watched carefully for how the womb progresses throughout pregnancy. 
 
 Dr Charles Kingsland, a spokesman for Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: "There are questions about how the physiological changes in the uterus will affect the mother and whether the transplanted uterus will be conducive to a growing baby." 
 
 Brannstrom said the transplanted wombs would be removed after a maximum of two pregnancies. ||||| LONDON (AP) — In a medical first, a woman in Sweden has given birth after receiving a womb transplant, the doctor who performed the pioneering procedure said Friday. 
 
 The 36-year-old mother received a uterus from a close family friend last year. Her baby boy was born prematurely but healthy last month, and mother and child are now at home and well. The identities of the woman and her male partner were not disclosed. 
 
 "The baby is fantastic," said Dr. Mats Brannstrom, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm IVF who led the research and delivered the baby with the help of his wife, a midwife. "But it is even better to see the joy in the parents and how happy he made them." 
 
 Brannstrom said it was "still sinking in that we have actually done it." 
 
 The feat opens up a new but still experimental alternative for some of the thousands of women each year who are unable to have children because they lost a uterus to cancer or were born without one. Before this case proved the concept can work, some experts had questioned whether a transplanted womb would be able to nourish a fetus. 
 
 For the proud parents, the years of research and experimentation were well worth the wait. 
 
 "It was a pretty tough journey over the years, but we now have the most amazing baby," the father said in a telephone interview. "He is very, very cute, and he doesn't even scream, he just murmurs." He said he and his wife, both competitive athletes, were convinced the procedure would work, despite its experimental nature. 
 
 Brannstrom and colleagues transplanted wombs into nine women over the last two years as part of a study, but complications forced removal of two of the organs. Earlier this year, Brannstrom began transferring embryos into the seven other women. He said there are two other pregnancies at least 25 weeks along. 
 
 Before these cases, there had been two attempts to transplant a womb — in Saudi Arabia and Turkey — but no live births resulted. Doctors in Britain, France, Japan, Turkey and elsewhere are planning to try similar operations, but using wombs from women who have just died rather than live donors. 
 
 The Swedish woman had healthy ovaries, but she was born without a uterus — a syndrome seen in one girl in 4,500. She received a uterus from a 61-year-old family friend who had gone through menopause after giving birth to two children. 
 
 Brannstrom said that he was surprised such an old uterus was so successful, but that the most important factor seemed to be that the womb was healthy. 
 
 The recipient has had to take three medicines to prevent her body from rejecting the new organ. About six weeks after the transplant, she got her menstrual period — a sign the womb was healthy. 
 
 After one year, when doctors were confident the womb was working well, they transferred a single embryo created in a lab dish using the woman's eggs and her partner's sperm. 
 
 The woman, who has only one kidney, had three mild rejection episodes, including one during pregnancy, but all were successfully treated with medicines. The research was paid for by the Jane and Dan Olsson Foundation for Science, a Swedish charity. 
 
 The baby's growth and blood flow to the womb and umbilical cord were normal until the 31st week of pregnancy, when the mother developed a dangerous high-blood pressure condition called pre-eclampsia. 
 
 After an abnormal fetal heart rate was detected, the baby was delivered by cesarean section. He weighed 3.9 pounds at birth — normal for that stage of pregnancy. Full gestation is about 40 weeks. The baby was released from the neonatal unit 10 days after birth. 
 
 Brannstrom said he was concerned he might have hurt the womb during the C-section and said they would have to wait a couple of months before knowing if the mother would be able to keep the uterus for a second pregnancy. 
 
 For the new parents, the thought of a second baby right now is a little premature. 
 
 "We will definitely think about that," the father said. "But right now, we're very happy with just one baby."
– Swedish doctors are advancing in their quest to implant embryos in women who have received pioneering womb implants, the Guardian reports. A medical team in Gothenburg has successfully transferred embryos to four of nine women with implants, a major advance after transferring just one embryo in January. Mats Brannstrom, who leads the team, wouldn't say if any of the women are pregnant, and a study by the group said four women experienced "mild rejection episodes"; in fact, two had their uterus removed due to complications. "One or two more will perhaps get pregnant and miscarry, and one or two won't be able to get pregnant," said Brannstrom, the AP reports. Other doctors say the women must be carefully watched to see how well a transplanted uterus functions. "It is a good sign they have done the transfers," said a doctor. "But a live birth will be the best validation that this works." Controversy has surrounded the Swedish project because it accepted wombs from live women who are friends or family of the patients, creating possible health risks for the donors. Two other womb transplant attempts, in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, failed to produce a child; only the Turkish donation was from a dead donor.