Uterine transplantation is generally seen as ethical, with acceptable risk levels for both donors and recipients, according to two parallel surveys given to women’s health physicians and to the general public.
The results, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), showed that “the majority of gynecologists surveyed find uterine transplantation to be an acceptable and ethical option for patients with uterine factor infertility,” wrote Pietro Bortoletto, MD, and his coauthors.
Similarly, about two-thirds of the general public found uterine transplantation permissible and ethical, according to responses from an age- and gender-balanced nationally representative survey.
The web-based surveys were designed to assess the personal beliefs of both the public and of physicians about the permissibility of uterine transplantation, and to evaluate respondents’ concerns about perceived risks associated with the procedure. Respondents in each survey were also asked to identify any ethical concerns they might have; recipients of both surveys received background information about uterine transplantation.
Dr. Bortoletto and his colleagues sent the survey by email to physicians who were members of ASRM and AAGL. Of the 4,216 physicians who were invited to take the survey, 447 (28.4%) completed it, though results were tallied just for the 414 respondents who were United States–based physicians.
Physician respondents, when asked whether women should be allowed to donate or receive a transplanted uterus, responded mostly in the affirmative: 20% strongly agreed and 36% agreed, while 23% were neutral. The remainder disagreed or strongly disagreed.
The possibility of complications for the recipient was identified as the top concern by about 50% of physician respondents. Next most concerning was fetal outcomes, of primary concern for about 28%, followed by complications to the donor and cost, each of which was of primary concern to 10% or fewer of the physician respondents.
The risk to donors of uterine transplantation was seen as acceptable by 73.7% of AAGL members and 71.7% of ASRM members; just over half of each group saw the risk as acceptable for the recipients and the infants, however.
Though over half of physician respondents (57.9% of AAGL members and 59.5% of ASRM members) felt that uterine transplantation should be a potential treatment option for women with absolute uterine factor infertility, fewer felt it should be covered by health insurance – 35.4% of AAGL members and 40.5% of ASRM members held this opinion.
Among the general public, over three quarters (78%) felt that women should be allowed to undergo uterine transplantation. Slightly fewer (67%) respondents to the public survey felt that uterine transplantation is ethical; those who agreed had slightly higher incomes and education levels (relative risk, 1.11 and 1.09, respectively). A similar number (66%) felt that uterine transplantation was an acceptable alternative to using a gestational carrier.
As was the case for physicians, fewer members of the general public (45%) agreed that health insurance should cover the procedure; here, women and Hispanics were more likely to agree (relative risk, 1.11 and 1.18, respectively).
The results of the survey of the general public were presented by first author Eduardo Hariton, MD, a coauthor of Dr. Bortoletto’s in the study of physician survey results. Both Dr. Hariton and Dr. Bortoletto are resident physicians in the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.
The public survey was sent to a nationally representative sample, balanced by gender and age. Of 1,444 individuals who were recruited to receive the survey, 1,337 completed it. Ninety respondents reported that they found in vitro fertilization unacceptable; these responses were excluded, Dr. Hariton said in an interview. “We wanted to get at uterine transplantation per se,” rather than assisted reproductive technology in general.
Placing the ethics of uterine transplantation in a broader context, Dr. Bortoletto said in an interview that the United States is one of just a few countries that permit gestational surrogacy, with regulations varying by state. To his knowledge, he said, Ukraine and Russia are the only other two nations that permit compensation for surrogacy. Greece and the United Kingdom permit altruistic surrogacy, while gestational surrogacy of any sort is forbidden in the European Union. Thus, in those nations, uterine transplantation will be the only option for women who wish to bear their biological children.
“I think the main takeaway is that for people who had hesitation about [uterine transplantation], it was mainly around safety,” and not ethical concerns, said Dr. Hariton. “I was a bit surprised, but also encouraged, by the degree of support.”
Neither Dr. Hariton nor Dr. Bortoletto reported any conflicts of interest. The public opinion study was funded by an Expanding the Boundaries grant.