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Short abstract

This paper examines patients’ and clinicians’ experiences of waiting for uterus transplantation (UTx) in Denmark. We conceptualize waiting as a frontier; a generative and uncertain social, temporal, and emotional space that shapes medical innovation and patienthood.

Long abstract

Uterus transplantation (UTx) is an emerging frontier in reproductive medicine that offers women born without a uterus the possibility of gestation through transplantation. While clinical programmes have been established in several countries, UTx remains unavailable in Denmark, where it has existed for nearly a decade as an anticipated yet unrealized medical option. This paper explores experiences of waiting for UTx in Denmark. We draw on in-depth interviews with ten women diagnosed with Mayer–Rokitansky–Küster–Hauser (MRKH) syndrome; women considered ‘first in line’ for UTx. We also interviewed eight medical professionals contemplating the implementation of UTx. We examine how UTx is lived and negotiated in the absence of clinical access. Positioned at the edge of an emerging reproductive infrastructure, patients and clinicians wait at a frontier, inhabiting a temporal space marked by anticipation, uncertainty, and ongoing speculation about whether and when the procedure might or should become available. Hence, rather than approaching waiting as a mere delay preceding technological access, the paper examines how waiting itself becomes a central condition through which reproductive futures are imagined, negotiated, and sustained. We conceptualize waiting as a frontier in its own right; a generative space where social, temporal, and emotional dimensions shape medical innovation and patienthood. By foregrounding waiting as a central feature of emerging medical technologies, the paper contributes to STS discussions by showing how emerging biomedical futures are shaped not only through laboratories and policy decisions but also through the lived experiences of those who wait.