Baylor Reports 27 Births From 44 Uterus Transplants, With High Complication Rates

Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas has recorded 27 births from uterus transplantation as of April 2026, according to the largest case series published to date. U.S. birth in 2017.

She and her colleagues published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association on May 1. From 2016 to 2026, 44 women had uterus transplantation at Baylor, which has the largest uterus transplant center in the world. A month after surgery, 37 of the 44 women had a successfully transplanted uterus.

As of April 2026, 33 of those with successful transplants had embryos transferred. Thirty-one of the 33 women became pregnant, and 27 have given birth. Eight of the 27 women who gave birth experienced complications, most commonly gestational diabetes or high blood pressure.

Of the 27 women, 23 had one child and four had two children each. All newborns had an Apgar score of at least 7 out of 10 at five minutes. Eleven of the newborns were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit due to prematurity.

Their stays ranged from a few days to almost two months. Science News reported that no malformations tied to the transplant itself occurred. Around one in 500 women do not have a functioning womb, a condition known as absolute uterine factor infertility.

It occurs when a woman is born without a uterus, has had it removed or has a defective organ. More than 70 babies have been born globally following uterus transplantation in the last decade, with uteruses coming from both living and deceased donors. Baylor has used almost exclusively living donors.

Uterus transplant recipients must create and freeze embryos via IVF prior to transplantation. Recipients usually begin having periods within a couple of months after surgery, indicating the uterus is functioning, and the first embryo transfer occurs around three months after transplantation.

The transplanted uterus is surgically removed after the recipient’s desired pregnancies are completed to avoid long-term immunosuppression.

Johannesson described the outcomes as a shift from experimental to clinical. “These women that are told they would never carry a pregnancy — to see them go through that pregnancy and childbirth, it’s extraordinary,” she said. In a 2021 study published in the American Journal of Surgery, Johannesson and colleagues examined motivations of women undergoing the procedure at Baylor.

Study participants cited the desire to carry a pregnancy and to help others who might benefit from the procedure. ” Another added: “Even if it doesn’t work for me, I wanted to be able to move forward with research” for others with absolute uterine factor infertility. Science News reported that once a transplanted uterus functions for 30 days, the majority of patients go on to have a healthy baby.

Johannesson noted that live birth rates for functioning transplanted uteruses match those seen in IVF, with similar complication rates. U.S. birth occurred in 2017.

Long-term monitoring of mothers and children continues as the earliest recipients’ offspring reach middle school age.