Womb Transplant Hopeful Praises ‘Amazing Opportunity’ As UK Begins Trials

With the news that the UK is set to carry out its first womb transplant operations, one woman is hopeful that she will finally be able to have the baby she so desperately wants.

Sophie Lewis was just 16-year-old when she found out that she would never be able to carry a child of her own and the concern over whether she would have children only grew stronger.

She was told she had MRKH (Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser) syndrome, which meant her womb had never developed.

The condition is thought to affect one in 5,000 women and the only options for having a family are usually surrogacy or adoption.

Now 30-years-old and getting ready to marry her long-term partner Tilden Lamb, 38, Ms Lewis is full of hope that she will finally have the opportunity to be a mother.

Describing how she first found out the devastating news that she would not be able to have a baby, Ms Lewis said: “I don’t think it really sunk in at the time, I was doing my GCSEs and I was having fun with my friends.

"I was upset but I think it was easier to take on board because I was quite young.”

More than 100 women in Britain have been identified as potential recipients of donor wombs, and Ms Lewis is hoping she will be on the final list of 10 to undergo the clinical trial.

She said: "To be able to carry my own child would be amazing.

"If I don’t get picked, then we will go down the surrogacy route.”

Ms Lewis is mindful of the fact a womb transplant is still relatively experimental, but she is holding onto the fact that a baby had been born in Sweden last year using the same technique.

She explained: "It was a very exciting time, I was so emotional, I did not know what to do.

"It was a massive shock but it was an amazing thing to see and hear.

“I took a lot of comfort from the fact that there’s a chance it might work.”

Ms Lewis said her partner and parents are supportive, but her mother worries about the implications of the surgery.

She added: "She’s worried because it’s a big operation. But then on the other side she understands why I would want to do it.

"I think carrying your own child would be amazing. With a surrogate, you wouldn’t feel the baby kick or move around. To be able to feel your baby move must be amazing.

"I want to experience the love you have for your child. It makes a family really.”