Doctors in Pune Perform India’s 1st Womb Transplant

A team of doctors from the city successfully performed the

country's first womb (uterus) transplant 

; on a 21-year-old woman from Solapur on Thursday. The breakthrough surgery was also the world's first laparoscopically (keyhole and minimally invasive) assisted live uterine transplant. The previous successful trans-plants were done only through open surgery.

The woman, who suffers from a congenital uterus absence, was fitted with her mother's womb which was retrieved mainly through keyhole surgery. The subsequent transplant of the uterus was done through an open surgery. The entire operation lasted nine hours. The surgery has opened a new gateway to motherhood for women who do not have a uterus, or those who have uteruses that do not function. The only options hitherto for such women were surrogacy or adoption.

Pune's Galaxy Care Hospital, where the surgery done, was granted a license by the state's directorate of health services to carry out the uterus transplant.

About Dr. Shailesh Puntambekar