A New Delhi surgeon is planning the world's first womb transplant on a transgender woman.
Dr Narendra Kaushik hopes to give the organs of a dead donor to a woman born biologically male in the hopes of them being able to carry a child.
Dr Kaushik - who could also use organs donated by a biological woman who has transitioned to male - hopes that if successful, the transplant means a transgender woman could fall pregnant through IVF.
To date, the operation has never been successfully performed, and the womb transplant procedure is still considered experimental.
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Only one case of a trans woman undergoing a uterus transplant has been widely documented, but the patient died months later due to complications.
Although patients aren’t unable to fall pregnant naturally through the operation - as the uterus can’t be connected to the fallopian tubes - experts believe that IVF could make a pregnancy theoretically possible.
Speaking to The Mirror, Dr Kaushik said: "Every transgender woman wants to be as female as possible.
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"And that includes being a mother. The way towards this is with a uterine transplant, the same as a kidney or any other transplant.”
He added: "This is the future. We cannot predict exactly when this will happen but it will happen very soon.We have our plans and we are very very optimistic about this."
Dr Kaushik noted that approximately 20 percent of his patients come from overseas, with many flying into his surgery, the Olmec clinic, from the UK.
The surgeon also told the outlet that business is booming at his clinic and he opened a purpose-built centre just to meet demand.
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Dr Kaushik added: “Many of our patients tell us that their sexual partners don’t even notice that they weren't born with female sex organs. And that’s our aim, to make it so that they live as normal a life as possible as a woman.”
UNILAD has approached Dr Kaushik for comment.
On the subject of womb transplants, Professor Simon Fishel - considered Britain’s leading fertility expert - said of the procedure: “Womb transplants have already been carried out in Denmark, though from one woman to another woman. Never to a man.
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"Now just suppose you can find a spot for the donated womb in a man and create a blood supply and the correct endocrine environment then, theoretically - it is possible."
However, The Mirror also reports that Professor Robert Winston, another leading British medical expert, has called the procedure ‘risky’.
He said: "The problems are huge, it would be a hugely difficult operation. The risk of death to the patient would be very high."
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Topics: Health
Aisha Nozari