Sarah Young for the Independent writes:
Trans women could get pregnant as soon as “tomorrow” thanks to developments in womb transplantation, according to one of the world’s leading fertility professors.
The success of womb transplants in women means that the science is now available to allow similar operations to be carried out on those who began life as men, Dr Richard Paulson, outgoing president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine says.
However, the procedure would be extremely complicated and it’s likely that transgender women would have to give birth by caesarean section. In addition, hormones might have to be given to replicate the changes that occur while a woman is pregnant.
Despite advances, womb transplant is still very much an experimental procedure, with British experts warning that initiating a pregnancy in a transgender woman may be unethical as it could pose “significant” risk to the foetus.
Since 2014 at least five babies have been born to women who had received wombs in Sweden, while the first British attempt is to be carried out next year by Dr Richard Smith of Imperial College London.
