After he helped perform the first successful womb transplant in the United Kingdom, gynecologist and professor Richard Smith had a simple answer to the question of if womb transplants could be used on trans women (men): No.
Research so far shows that women who have been born without a womb or a vagina and who have a surgically created neo-vagina tend to have multiple miscarriages. Doctors attribute this to a lack of a naturally occurring microbiome, which would be a similar issue in trans women.
Smith said: “On top of that, while we’re well aware no one is having a normal vaginal delivery, there are issues with respect to pelvic anatomy.
“We have a lot of supporting structures in a female pelvis — where are you going to hook a uterus when we stitch one in a male pelvis?
“I have seen this raised false expectation but my own belief is that this is 10 to 20 years away at least,” Smith added. “There may be somebody who wants to be a renegade, and be a real hero but that’s not our scene at all in any way.
Imagine that! People born without wombs and vaginas (men, or, in rare cases, women with birth defects) have a tough time carrying children. As my colleague Kayla put it, you can’t put a king-sized bed in a college dorm room — it just doesn’t fit.