Pregnant Man?: Find Out How It Happened

To our neighbors, my wife, Nancy, and I don't appear in the least unusual. To those in the quiet Oregon community where we live, we are viewed just as we are -- a happy couple deeply in love. Our desire to work hard, buy our first home, and start a family was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until we decided that I would carry our child.

I am transgender, legally male, and legally married to Nancy...

Our situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns. We have only begun experiencing opposition from people who are upset by our situation. Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs. Health care professionals have refused to call me by a male pronoun or recognize Nancy as my wife. Receptionists have laughed at us. Friends and family have been unsupportive; most of Nancy's family doesn't even know I'm transgender...

We are proud to announce that this pregnancy is free of complications and our baby girl has a clean bill of health. We are happily awaiting her birth, with an estimated due date of July 3, 2008.

Read more of the Thomas Beatie's story at The Advocate...

-or-

Check out this video coverage from CNN Headline News.

What do you think? Do you think this is wrong? Is it unnatural? Or do you think we need to expand our notions of gender? Thomas Beatie is "naturally" a woman, so is it really so "wrong"? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

Comments

[snarkopolitan]

At first, I had a "hey! that's my gig!" feeling. Then, I wondered, why bother? Why call yourself a man and do the most female thing on earth? Is this the Jews for Jesus of gender?
But who is hurt by this? The usual "the child will be teased at school" doesn't even apply; the family will look traditionally gendered. As long as the little man isn't continually barefoot and pregnant.
Any doctor who refuses pre-natal care to an already-conceived child should be disciplined.

[dora rice]

I think all and all we are just getting tired of dicussing this abnormal behavior. It is and will always be abnormal, it it wasn't , nature would have created another being with a hole in three or two, or what ever. Why people fall over and over for this abnormal garbage, when we have economic woes, gas at 4 dollars, and soldiers dying for perhaps nothing just like in Vietnam. Let these abnormal people do what ever there perverted mind is capable of, but leave us alone with it. I have never seen a pervert so far aging grace fully . So something is very wrong about this transgender life style.

[luckyoldson]

I'll tell you what I think: It' a crock.

[realitycheck7]

it's a woman, read the whole story

[GingerM]

To give you an idea of how ignorant this same anchor-woman was (I saw this telecast when it first came on yesterday at 4:00am on Headline News), she claimed disbelief and couldn't connect the dots - exclaiming "he can't be pregnant - he's married to a woman!". The poor little bobblehead seems to think either his own penis made him pregnant or that he will deliver the baby through his penis.

The man WAS a woman - and obviously still kept all her original equipment. I sincerely doubt the baby will go to full term - That baby will require tons of female hormones - hormones he now no longer has as a man. He has not one single femine feature - so he obviously has been taking his male hormone pills. He will undoubtedly have a miscarriage before the end of the second trimester. He looks like he's in his 5th-6th month, so he better not get too attached emotionally.

[rrafiringa]

Only in America... it hurts just thinking of this dude giving birth through his penis... vagina... whatever.

[SeaBlood]

I don't see anything wrong with being transgendered. Usually, such people have no choice; they are born that way. But lets not bring children into this situation. It's hard enough to be a child these days without having a mom who's also a dad ! The kid is going to be relentlessly resentful of the parents, and who can blame him/her !! Don't deliberately do something to spread misery inthe world.

[noneofdabove]

At least the child will have two loving parents who have defied the biased society to bring him/her into this world. Think of how many innocent children are neglected, abused, and even killed by their otherwise straight, moralistic, judgmental, hypocritical, and ignorant parents.

[swkidder]

I think this is the private buiness of a couple who appear to love one another, be happily married, and committed to bringing a healthy child into the world . This child is clearly much desired, and will most likely be very much loved. In short, butt out world - this is their business.
And shame on those in the healthcare profession who have treated them badly. This is a place in which the majority of caregivers chose their profession from a desire to help others heal, and a wish to be "of service ." Shame on those who have treated this couple with anything less than the dignity and compassion due any human being. And if that's beyond the scope of the "religion" practiced by those individuals - I humbly suggest they go back to their Bibles and reread what Jesus had to say on the subject of judgment, compassion, and "the least of us." May they all find this pregnancy an opportunity for growth.

[TheBlueGoose]

First, this is not a story about pregnant man. Rather, it is the story about a pregnant woman. The fact that the woman had her breasts amputated and took drugs to grow a beard does not make her a man.

Second, someone asked if the woman would be able to nurse her baby. Well, duh, obviously not: the woman had her breasts amputated.

Someone asked how the baby would be born. Most likely the way that most babies are born: it will exit the mother's vagina. It could be born by C-section, but there's no reason that the baby could not exit the mother's vagina. There is no indication that the woman had her female organs surgically mutilated.

Third, no matter what those two woman say, they are are NOT legally married! Same-sex marriage is not allowed in that state.

This reminds me of a man that my daugher knows: He has a penis. He takes some hormones so that his beard is reduced. He wears dresses sometimes. He has sex with both men and woman. My daughter persisted in calling him a woman. I asked the obvious: When he is having intercourse with a woman, and when his penis is inside her vagina, would you still call him a woman? ... In this case, the woman is pregnant! There can be no more obvious proof that she is a woman.

This story deals with a mental health problem, not a "miracle" of a man getting pregnant.

[Boobaloo]

I agree Bluegoose.

There is a small number of deeply disturbed, mentally ill people who have a pathology called Gender Confusion and they want the whole world to believe their twisted sickness. Just because someone believes something, doesn't make it true.

When a schitzophrenic hears voices, we know he/she is sick but when a transgender is born a man and demands that he's really a woman, we're supposed to give him a hug, tell him he's right and then let him amputate and mutilate his genitalia to match his distorted version of reality.

It's sick; they're sick and the doctors using them for science experiments are sick.

They're mentally ill.

[phlashba]

First, you are a bigot. Second, you will deny this vehemently. Third, you will continue to hate others because you hate your self (source of said bigotry)..

[DMSmith]

Your headline is wrong. He is not the first 'man' to give birth. A very good friend of mine, a female-to-male transgender, gave birth about a decade ago in much the same circumstances. He stopped taking the hormones in preparation for the pregnancy, and had a perfectly normal pregnancy and birth. Although he did have a beard and tats at the time. I was impressed with the nursing staff and Doctors - even the straight, extremely devout catholic nurse at the moment of birth look up at him and said "You are going to be a wonderful father!"

The child is loved and healthy and beautiful.

[okAcomputer]

what do tats have to do with gender?

[DMSmith]

You're right. In and of themselves, they don't have anything to do with gender. However, context is everything and I didn't communicate that well. In this case, it's the overall effect of the beard, the 'attitude' and movements of this person and the types and placements of the tattoos that make him appear like a very masculine biker.

[Theda]

Who got him pregnant? Is he/she cheating on his wife Nancy with a MAN? Obviously!
Unless Nancy is really a man herself.

[GingerM]

It seems that he got pregnant the same way females do when it's not from your own spouse (ahem...). In this case, since we don't know such is the case, it would be safe to assume that he was artificially inseminated (clinically-based pregnancy). The same way Mary Cheney had hers (unless, she did the deed with a surrogate or whomever).

[avicenna]

It is rather irrelevant to see the world in wrong or right, and not much we do anymore is natural. However, there are some serious concerns that I hope Thomas and his wife are aware of. We're just learning the profound effect of the prenatal environment of the fetus that influences how they turn out much later in life. The body which is currently carrying ithe child had been exposed to high levels of testosterone and very low levels of ovarian hormones that would normally condition the cellular area surrounding the developing child in most premenopausal women. What does this do to the "maternal factors" that sends cellular signals and growth factors to a fetus? Hormones are very powerful and when chronically applied from exogenous sources - they can irreversibly change cells and how they behave. What we have here is an uncontrolled experiment with an "N of 1". Thomas may be male in gender, but he is female in sex (it took me some time to get the lexicon right in my field of clinical research). Thomas is being exposed to high levels of both of female hormones - when he gives birth and reverts to testosterone treatment, it may play havoc with both the post-baby body and brain. I have no doubt that Thomas and Nancy would be very devoted and loving parents, but this child will be very unique at both a societal level and potentially a physiological level - which can be very isolating.

[ZoeBrain]

Not N=1, more like N=100.

The movie Transparent, made in 2005, details 19 such pregnancies.

http://www.transparentthemovie.com/

Your concerns are reasonable, but we already have a reasonable estimate of the risks. They appear to be no greater than the risks associated with PCOS, and may be less. Certainly they're marginal, and not extreme.

Neither the general public, nor even most medical professionals, have any idea about just how many Transsexual and Intersexed people there are in the general population. You still see the "1 in 30,000" figure for MtoF Transsexuals, even though a simple count of Sex Reassignment surgeries performed on US citizens shows that it must be an order of magnitude greater.

[avicenna]

In regards to the comparison of Thomas's situation to PCOS (which we call Anovulatory Androgen Excess) isn't exactly correct. Women with PCOS have ovaries that produce high levels of both estrogen and testosterone (but not to the same magnitude as Thomas receives exogenously). Their pregnancies aren't always free of issues either - many get worsening insulin resistance which could very well affect the future health of the child and the mother. We have also learned that the steroidal hormones that your body affects your cells differently then those that are administered.
N = 1 for Thomas and his family - because of the fact that not a lot is known is about the consequences that has been published in medical literature - it will be hard to predict the outcome and how to modify it to prevent any parameter that may be problematic.

[niikeb]

Interesting definition of sex and gender, I disagree but it is a much clearer description then I have ever heard before.

[tkondaks]

avicenna writes: " I have no doubt that Thomas and Nancy would be very devoted and loving parents...".

Let's put aside for the moment the fact that other than reading Thomas self-written article in "The Advocate" avicenna has never met either of the future parents and therefore could not possibly know what kind of parents they will become. Note that avicenna writes the above after having just written an entire paragraph describing Thomas as having practically conjured up a veritable Frankenstein by ingesting over a long period of time male hormones, thus creating the most inhospitable environment in which to create human life.

Whatever lends itself to avicenna's conclusion that Thomas and Nancy would be good parents? If anything, from what avicenna has written, they should be arrested for illegal and irresponsible experimentation with human life!

[amensupremera]

HA Ha, I love it when nature turns everybody's idea of what is natural on its a_s. I don't know why people are outraged by it. Personally, I'm curious about the biology of it all like how exactly he got pregnant, how he plans on giving birth, and whether or not he'll be able to breast feed? The science of it all is really amazing its just ashame that people are going to be caught up in the bigotry of it all instead of the natural wonder of the situation.

[OmegaJamie]

Awesome. I agree. How wonderful that we get to wonder about gender, sex, and baby making. Otherwise life would be rather boring. I'm happy for the couple, and I hope they have a healthy and safe pregnancy.

[lighthouse5]

NATURAL wonder?? There is nothing natural about this situation.

[Hare]

If life wants to express itself, it will, not matter what we do to prevent it . A woman can be in five contraceptives and still get pregnant. On the other side of the coin, she can try a thousand ways to get pregnant and she will not unless life wills itself to be here. This may sound too philosophical for some, though this is just another way life makes a choice to express itself. LOVE AND CARE is all a child needs even if it is a pack of wolves doing in it. Many from "traditional" families have fared worst due to the lack of those crucial components. I wish the best to the parents to be

[scottyboi84]

Being a man myself, I envy women for their ability to know the wonder of carrying life inside of their body. I think what their doing is great...who are we to judge, and to cram judgment down their throats? Their lives will go on whether we agree with the decisions they make within their household or not. They will still have bills to pay, and family to love, friends to visit, so why bother them? Sometimes people should admire the different, rather than obliterate it.

[dorothyinchina]

Leave her/him alone. The fact that this is a story at all and that people are outraged shows more about them than it does about this person. Our societal hysteria about anyone else's sex shows that we need to grow up and get past this adolescent preoccupation with all things sexual. If you are outraged, look to yourself and ask why.

[centrixbear]

I think it's beautiful and brave. Bringing a child into the world out of love. And brave because of the shunning they are getting. I wish people would just let others live their lives if they are not hurting anyone. I am so tired of someone religious, right wing, neocon trying to put their morality on everyone else.