India's first womb transplant at Pune hospital today

New Delhi: A 21-year-old woman will become the first person to undergo a womb transplant in India when doctors transfer her mother's uterus to her on Thursday in a brain-storming procedure.

The woman, who is a Solapur resident and is unable to conceive it due to absence of uterus, is being operated at Pune’s Galaxy Care Laparoscopy Institute (GCLI) by a team of 12 doctors.

“We will start to retrieve the uterus at around 9 am from the donor and transplant it in recipient,” Dr Shailesh Puntambekar, medical director, GCLI, was quoted as saying to HT, adding that the entire procedure would take around eight hours.

Using a laparoscopic technique, surgeons will retrieve the uterus from the donor, who is in her 40s.

On completion of the transplant, the recipient is expected to in ICU for a week and another two weeks in general care.

On Friday, may 19, the hospital will conduct another uterus transplant on a 24-year-old woman from Gujarat who suffers from Asherman’s Syndrome (scar tissue in the uterus) and will also receive her mother’s womb.