Transgendered man 5 months pregnant, he says
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 | 11:19 AM ET
CBC News
A transgendered Oregon man says he is five months pregnant and expecting a baby girl.
Thomas Beatie told The Advocate, a magazine devoted to gay, bisexual and transgendered issues, that he made the choice because his wife can't have children.
Beatie, who writes he is "legally male and legally married," said his wife Nancy had a hysterectomy because of severe endometriosis.
Sterilization is not a requirement for gender reassignment, allowing him to keep his female reproductive organs, he said. Beatie did have breast reduction surgery and testosterone therapy, but stopped taking the hormone after deciding to become pregnant.
"It had been roughly eight years since I had my last menstrual cycle, so this wasn’t a decision that I took lightly," he said. "My body regulated itself after about four months, and I didn’t have to take any exogenous estrogen, progesterone, or fertility drugs to aid my pregnancy."
The couple used a sperm bank and home insemination, he wrote. His first pregnancy resulted in an ectopic pregnancy with triplets.
"It was a life-threatening event that required surgical intervention, resulting in the loss of all embryos and my right fallopian tube," he said. "When my brother found out about my loss, he said, 'It’s a good thing that happened. Who knows what kind of monster it would have been.'"
This pregnancy is free of complications and a baby girl is due on July 3, said Beatie.
The couple has only recently started to experience "opposition" from friends, family and medical professionals, Beatie said.
"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," he said. "Receptionists have laughed at us. Friends and family have been unsupportive; most of Nancy's family doesn't even know I’m transgender."
Beatie told The Advocate most people in his community don't know he is pregnant.
"But our situation ultimately will ask everyone to embrace the gamut of human possibility and to define for themselves what is normal," he wrote.
