Mick Hartley

The UK's first womb transplant:

Surgeons have performed Britain’s first womb transplant on a woman aged 34, who received the organ from her older sister and hopes to get pregnant this year.

The team in Oxford spent eight hours removing the womb from the 40-year-old donor, then nine hours implanting it into her sister, who was in the operating theatre next door. The donated womb is working “perfectly” and both women are “over the moon” after fully recovering.

The recipient, who was born with a condition that meant her womb did not develop properly, will soon begin IVF treatment in London and hopes to have two children with her husband.

That's wonderful for the recipient, of course, but the news focus, in the Telegraph at least, is how this exciting development might affect men. Because that's what really matters:

Last week, womb transplant surgeons in the US suggested they were on the cusp of allowing transgender women to give birth to their own children.

British surgeons are more circumspect.

Around the world, more than 90 womb transplants have been carried out, with most operations involving a living donor, and all on biological women….

Lead surgeon Professor Richard Smith, a consultant gynaecological surgeon at Imperial College London, said there was not currently “technical feasibility”.

He said the pelvic anatomy, vascular anatomy and shape of the pelvis are different, and there are issues to overcome with the microbiome – the network of micro-organisms that live in the human body.

“We’re very aware that the 2010 Gender Equality Act mandates equal treatment for cisgender and transgender women,” he said.

“But that assumes technical feasibility. And in this case, currently, there is not technical feasibility.

He went on: “My own sense is if there are transgender transplants that are going to take place, they are many years off. There are an awful lot of steps to go through.

“My suspicion is a minimum of 10 to 20 years.”.

But why are they even thinking of this? What strange reading of the Gender Equality Act requires that "cisgender" and "transgender" women should have the same possibility of a womb transplant? I mean…never mind whatever reading of the law they come up with, what about biological reality? Can't they see the issues? It's so clearly – to everyone except trans activists – an obscene waste of medical resources and medical research. 

Dr Meenakshi Choudhary, consultant in reproductive medicine and gynaecology at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said it was “a remarkable stride forward in medical science and gender inclusivity.”

She said: “This medical milestone offers hope not only to young girls born without a womb but also to a broader range of individuals facing reproductive challenges following removal of the uterus for various indications such as cancer.

“This ground-breaking womb transplant achievement, though in its infancy, may also offer a beacon of hope for transgender individuals as well, illustrating the evolving landscape of reproductive possibilities.”

"A beacon of hope for transgender individuals"? No mention, of course, of the babies so cavalierly volunteered to be the guinea pigs as they develop in a wholly unnatural environment, in a body biologically unsuited but altered by surgery and god knows what drugs and hormones – all this to validate the delusions of a man that he can really be a woman and have a baby….

Yep…obscene.