HEALTH / SCIENCE - Swedish women have world's first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants - SWEDEN

 

Two Swedish women are carrying the wombs of their mothers after the world's first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants.

Specialists at the University of Gothenburg completed the surgery over the weekend without complications.

They were waiting until the women get pregnant to consider the procedures a success, they said. Michael Olausson, one of the Swedish surgeons, told the Associated Press: "That's the best proof."

He said the daughters started in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, before the surgery. After a waiting period of a year, their wombs will be implanted with their embryos created by fertilising their harvested eggs with their partners' sperm. The embryos have been frozen but each woman would only be allowed to have two pregnancies, Olausson said. The wombs would then be removed.

The university said one recipient had her uterus removed many years ago due to cervical cancer and the other was born without a uterus. The women are aged 32 and 37 and have not been named. Their mothers were chosen as donors because they were good tissue matches and their wombs had already proved they were capable of carrying at least one child to term.

"Both patients that received new uteri are doing fine but are tired after surgery. The donating mothers are up and walking and will be discharged from the hospital within a few days," team leader Mats Brannstrom said in a statement.

The team plan to carry out a further eight womb transplants.

Turkish doctors last year said they performed the first successful uterus transplant, giving a womb from a deceased donor to a young woman. Olausson said that woman was doing well, but he wasn't sure whether she had started undergoing fertility treatment.

In 2000, doctors in Saudi Arabia transplanted a uterus from a live donor, but it had to be removed three months later because of a blood clot.

Scott Nelson, chair of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Glasgow, called the Swedish transplants a "huge step" but stressed it remained to be seen whether they resulted in successful pregnancies.

"In terms of the risk to the pregnancy, the greatest concerns are the placenta not developing normally, the baby not growing properly and being born prematurely," said Nelson, who was not involved with the transplants. "Pre-term birth is a major risk, ie a small baby being born, that's what you'd mainly be worried about."

 

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SOCIETY - Red Cross embraces challenges - CHINA

The Red Cross Society of China is coordinating with an international oversight body as it builds a modern, humanitarian organization and bids farewell to the turbulence of its recent past.

The society came under fire last year after a young woman, claiming to be a society official, wrote a micro blog boasting about her lavish lifestyle and flaunting her wealth. It caused a huge public backlash.

“Despite the fact that it was pure fantasy, the society’s image suffered. But it also showed that we needed reform to become more open and transparent,” Zhao Baige, executive vice-president of the society, said at a forum on Saturday attended by Red Cross societies in the Asia-Pacific region.

The society is working with the oversight group, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to achieve globally recognized certification, Zhao said.

The Organizational Capacity and Assessment Certification sets standards to evaluate Red Cross societies.

“It helps us know ourselves better and make targeted improvements,” Zhao told China Daily.

Self-development, work implementation, resource mobilization and supervision, will all be under scrutiny and will be expected to meet certain standards, according to Tadateru Konoe, federation president.

China’s growing global clout means that the public have a right to expect the best from the society, he said.

The society set an excellent example by coordinating with the federation, Zhao said.

To date, only 21 of the 187 global Red Cross societies worldwide have completed the certification process and Konoe praised China for its openness.

“It’s like operating on yourself to heal your own defects and this takes courage,” Zhao said.

The society is at the first stage of the certification process. This involves an internal evaluation that is carried out domestically by specialists, society decision makers and some branch leaders.

Internal governance, organizational independence, leadership capacity, volunteer mobilization, and public supervision need to be substantially improved to meet today’s challenges, Zhao said.

These are also in line with the current reform measures, she said.

Konoe agreed, adding that “great adaptability is an important asset for strong Red Cross societies”.

Many leaders of national societies were promoted from the lower ranks.

“I myself also started as a volunteer,” Konoe said.

After the self-evaluation phase, the society will launch a peer review. This will see the society evaluated by other national societies in the global Red Cross family.

The whole process will take at least two years.

“We may release a global ranking of Red Cross national societies,” Konoe said.

Contact the writer at shanjuan@chinadaily.com.cn