Transgender pregnancy

Transgender pregnancy is the incubation of one or more embryos or fetuses by transgender people.

Male pregnancy is alien to mammals, but the "phenomenon is the universal reproductive mode of pipefishes, seahorses and sea dragons."^[1]

Trans women

XY-born assigned male at birth generally do not have the anatomy needed for natural embryonic and fetal development. Today, there are no successful cases regarding uterus transplant concerning a trans woman or a male. The theoretical issue of ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside the uterine cavity) by implantation in anatomical males has been addressed by experts in the field of fertility medicine, who stress that the concept of ectopic implantation, while theoretically plausible, has never been attempted and would be difficult to justify – even for women lacking a uterus – owing to the extreme health risks to both the parent and child.^[2][3]

Robert Winston, a pioneer of in-vitro fertilization, told London's Sunday Times that "male pregnancy would certainly be possible" by having an embryo implanted in a man's abdomen – with the placenta attached to an internal organ such as the bowel – and later delivered by Caesarean section.^[4][5][6] Ectopic implantation of the embryo along the abdominal wall, and resulting placenta growth would, however, be very dangerous and potentially fatal for the host, and is therefore unlikely to be studied in humans.^[4][7]

It may be possible for trans women to receive uteruses in the future. They need hormone replacement therapy to induce female puberty and maintain female secondary sex characteristics. They need ovary transplant or an egg donation and IVF. However, there are problems with vaginal birth. For most trans women who began HRT past male puberty, the pelvis has failed to develop femininely and broaden as it would have before or during puberty. However, as proven by Nadya Suleman (octuplets), Lina Medina (youngest mother) and Stacey Herald (smallest mother at 71 cm ^[8]), a small pelvis is not an obstacle to gestation, even in extreme cases. Delivery would be via C-section.

Trans men

Some female-to-male transgender men can become pregnant. This is possible for trans men who still have functioning ovaries and a uterus.^[9][10][11] For example, Matt Rice, a transgender man, bore a son named Blake in October 1999^[12] following random sperm donations from three cisgender male friends^[13] during a relationship with transgender writer Patrick Califia.^[13]

Thomas Beatie, another transgender man, has borne three children. He chose to become pregnant because his wife Nancy was infertile, doing so with cryogenic donated sperm and a syringe, at home. Thomas wrote an article about the experience in The Advocate.^[11] The Washington Post further broadened the story on March 25 when blogger Emil Steiner called Beatie the first "legally" pregnant man on record,^[14] in reference to certain states' and federal legal recognition of Beatie as a man.^[10][11] In 2010, Guinness World Records recognized Beatie as the world's "First Married Man to Give Birth."^[15] Beatie gave birth to a girl named Susan Juliette Beatie on June 29, 2008.^[16][17] Barbara Walters announced Beatie's second pregnancy on The View,^[18] and Beatie gave birth to a boy named Austin Alexander Beatie on June 9, 2009.^[19] Beatie gave birth to his third child, a boy named Jensen James Beatie, on July 25, 2010.^{[20] [21]}

Yuval Topper, an Israeli transgender man, gave birth to a child on December 28, 2011.^[22]

References