Keio University Team Applies for Uterus Transplant Permission

Tokyo, Nov. 25 (Jiji Press)--A team of researchers at Keio University applied to the Japanese university's ethics review board Thursday for approval of its plan to conduct a clinical trial on uterus transplantation, sources familiar with the matter said.

No uterus transplant has been carried out in the country.

In July last year, a committee of the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences released a report allowing a healthy uterus to be transplanted to a woman without such an organ to offer an opportunity for pregnancy, in the form of a clinical trial.

The Keio University team is apparently hoping to kick off the research in the fiscal year that begins in April 2023, sources familiar with its plan said.

In the report, the association said that it expects uterus transplants to take place mainly between patients of Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome, a condition in which a woman is born without a uterus, and their relatives such as mothers.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]