UPDATE 3/9/16 4:01EST: Due to a serious complication, the trasnplantrecipient underwent surgery to remove the donor uterus.

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After nine hours of surgery, surgeons at theCleveland Clinic successfully completed the first uterustransplant in the U.S. on Februray 24.

The first ever uterine transplant took place in Saudi Arabia in2000, but eventually failed due to blood clotting. Prior to theCleveland Clinic’s surgery on February 24, Sweden was the onlycountry that performed uterine transplants successfully, startingin 2012, with the first child born to a transplant recipient inOctober 2014.

According to the New York Times, all procedures were done at theUniversity of Gothenburg under Dr. Mats Brannstrom. Of the ninewomen who underwent the transplant process in Sweden, five havegiven birth to healthy, albeit premature, babies. Two of thetransplants failed and had to be removed.

The recipient at the Cleveland Clinic – a 26-year-old womanborn without a uterus – has three adopted children, but said she islooking forward to the possibility of pregnancy. However, that couldstill be two years away at the earliest. She will have to wait ayear to heal, and another year will be dedicated to undergoing invitro fertilization (IVF).

The donor was a healthy woman in her 30s with several children.She died suddenly, but a cause was not given. The program currentlyuses only deceased donors, but living donors may become apossibility in the future, says the Times.

Dr. Andreas G. Tzakis, the director of solid organtransplantation at the Cleveland Clinic, said the recipient isdoing well, but remains under close watch to ensure her bodydoesn’t reject the new uterus.

The Cleveland Clinic’s ethic panel was granted permission toperform 10 uterine transplants for women between 21 and 39 as partof an experiment, says the New York Times. Once the series of 10surgeries has concluded, a decision will be made regarding furthertransplants. Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and Brighamand Women’s Hospital in Boston have also introduced similarprograms.

Uterine transplants, while innovative, pose an interesting, andpotentially ethical, conundrum. Women in need of a uterus aregenerally healthy patients, unlike other transplant recipients,such as those suffering from heart or liver failure.

The surgery isn’t life-saving, but could be fatal. Fetalexposure to anti-rejection drugs and gestation within a womb takenfrom a donor raise potential dangers, not to mention the routinesurgical hazards associated with any major procedure. Furthermore,the transplant itself isn’t the only surgery for which recipientsmust brace themselves. Recipients receive immune-suppressivetherapy, and once pregnancy is no longer anoption for the transplant recipient (after about five years or oneto two children, according to Cleveland Clinic doctors), ahysterectomy must be performed so patients can stop the therapymedication.

That said, transplants are increasingly viewed as a quality oflife matter, along the lines of facial transplants, and soon, maybeeven penis transplants. The Times says Johns Hopkins is currentlylooking into the latter.