Trans man becomes first male in UK to give birth
Update: 09:44, 13/2/2012
A trans man is believed to have become the UK’s first ‘male mother’ to give birth despite having already had gender reassignment surgery.
According to the Sunday Times, the man in his thirties gave birth to a child last year via a caesarean section.
Joanna Darrell, of the Beaumont Society, which helps men who wish to or have changed gender told the newspaper that the unnamed father got in touch to enquire for help having a child after having undergone surgery.
Through the charity, the unnamed man had hormone treatment to reactivate his womb. The womb had not actually been removed during his original surgery.
“He got back in touch about six months ago to thank the society for its help and to say he had the baby,” Ms Darrell said.
Thomas Beatie, a trans man who lives legally in his acquired gender in the United States, conceived and has given birth to three children since 2007. His wife Nancy is unable to conceive.
The Oregon couple’s first daughter was born in June 2008 and a son followed a year later and a son in 2010.
Despite being legally defined as a man for over ten years and having had some gender reassignment surgery, Beatie kept his female reproductive organs.
He is thought to have had natural births with his three children and his wife breastfed both.
Before starting a family, Beatie had been on hormone treatments, but stopped taking them in order to resume menstruating and conceive through artificial insemination. All children were conceived with the help of sperm donors.
Last month, Yuval Topper, became the first Israeli trans man to give birth. Mr Topper underwent gender confirmation surgery three years ago. He was travelling to Jerusalem, but stopped to give birth in Tel Aviv.
There is a cancer risk associated with retaining a uterus and ovaries after they are exposed to high levels of testosterone associated with gender reassignment which means many choose to have them removed.
Christopher Inglefield, a surgeon specialising in gender reassignment surgery told the Sunday Times: “The obvious thing is to get them to store eggs before they have the surgery, so they can have babies later using a female surrogate.”
But not everyone is supportive of trans men having children. Trevor Stammers, director of medical ethics at St Mary’s University College told the newspaper: “The fact that the medical profession is facilitating and encouraging this is a serious problem. You are hardly going to end up with a baby that’s going to have a happy, productive and optimal childhood.”
