 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. In all, nine women in Sweden have received new wombs since 2012, but two had to have them removed because of complications. The women had in vitro fertilization before the transplants, using their own eggs to make embryos. "We have already begun transferring embryos into four of the women and plan to make attempts with the others when they are ready," said Dr. Mats Brannstrom, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Goteburg, who is leading the research. Brannstrom predicted that three or four of the nine women might succeed in giving birth, which would be a world first. There have been two previous attempts to transplant a womb — in Turkey and Saudi Arabia — but both failed to produce babies. Brannstrom said any woman in the study who does get pregnant will be on a low dose of drugs to keep from rejecting the transplanted womb and will be monitored as a high-risk pregnancy. Some doctors said women who got pregnant with a new uterus would have to be watched carefully for how the womb progresses throughout pregnancy. "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," said Dr. Charles Kingsland, a spokesman for Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and a gynecologist at Liverpool Women's Hospital. In a study published last week, Brannstrom and colleagues described the procedures used to transplant the nine wombs and said there were "mild rejection episodes" in four patients. Brannstrom said the transplanted wombs would be removed after a maximum of two pregnancies.
– 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.