The United Kingdom has made medical history with doctors carrying out the country’s first womb transplant.

On Sunday, surgeons at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford successfully transplanted a 40-year-old woman’s womb to her 34-year-old sister in an operation that lasted nine hours and 20 minutes.

The sibling who received the womb (also called a uterus) was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH), a rare condition that impacts women’s reproductive systems.

Her sister was willing to donate her uterus after giving birth to her own two children.

According to the UK Press Association, the transplant is expected to last for a maximum of five years before the womb is removed and during this period, the recipient will need immunosuppressant drugs to ensure that her body does not reject the implant.