Can i male get pregnant

A recently published case study described a transgender man who went to an emergency room with severe abdominal pain — but doctors were slow to realize that he was pregnant and in danger. The man delivered a stillborn baby several hours later. The issue extends to all types of medical care for transgender and nonbinary people, not only to prenatal care, said Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, director of the National LGBT Health Education Center at Fenway Health, which educates health care organizations on how to care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

A report by the Center for American Progress, a liberal policy institute, found that 29 percent of trans people reported that a medical provider had refused to see them because of their sexual orientation or gender identity in the previous year, and 21 percent of trans respondents said a provider had used harsh or abusive language when they sought medical care. Download the NBC News app for breaking news.

That lack of awareness can cause trans people to avoid doctors. According to a report in the journal Medical Care , about 30 percent of trans people reported delaying or not seeking care due to discrimination. The need for trans people to constantly explain themselves to doctors and other medical staff can be draining. Ethan Clift, 36, and his wife Allison Clift-Jennings, 41, who are both transgender, decided in that they wanted biological children.

Clift, a lobbyist, also wanted to begin taking testosterone as part of his transition. Because testosterone blocks ovulation, the couple, who live in Reno, Nevada, decided to freeze their embryos before Clift transitioned. Clift said doctors and nurses at the fertility clinic in Reno where he had his eggs harvested were well intentioned but struggled to get his pronouns right.

He tried to correct them, he said, but it became too exhausting, so he gave up. According to a small study published by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 22 percent of trans and nonbinary people said they chose to give birth at home with the assistance of a midwife or doula.

Overall, just 1. A couple can conceive through traditional intercourse if one has the capability of producing sperm, or they can use IUI intrauterine insemination if their partner cannot produce sperm or if they want to use a donor. Everybody is different, and how a cycle changes as testosterone builds up is unique to each individual. Even though testosterone may not sterilize someone, it may still be a good idea to freeze your eggs before committing to your transition.

As stated before, everybody adapts differently to the changes transitioning brings. If you want a family in the future, it is prudent to be safe and make sure you have a backup plan in case fertility does become an issue. The reproductive system can be tricky, and if you know a biological child is a priority for your family, protecting your eggs while they are healthy is a way to help ensure you have the family you want down the line.

Egg Freezing is a relatively straightforward process, and we have fertility specialists, with over 10 years of helping trans people that can help give you all the information needed if you are considering this option. It is a safeguard to help protect your biological eggs and preserve them in case anything may happen to your reproductive system, and thanks to modern technology, success rates of healthy pregnancies from frozen eggs or embryos are climbing higher each day.

For patients that have a partner or sperm donor they want to use, if the traditional route of conception through intercourse is not an option or does not work, these frozen eggs can be fertilized and then implanted into the uterus through IVF. Some people will choose to have their female partner carry their egg for them as well, this allows both parents to feel like they are involved in creating their child and go through the process together.

The idea that someone on testosterone can never have their own biological child is not only false, but it is also dangerous.

It means that transgender and nonbinary people are not being properly educated on what is going on with their bodies, and the consequences can be heartbreaking. Last year, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article describing a transgender man who arrived in the emergency room with abdominal pain. While he told the nurses he had transitioned, their conceptions of him as a man altered how they went about their course of treatment.

When his child was finally delivered, it was sadly stillborn. Had the doctors adjusted their care and had the knowledge about transgender health needs, they may have taken a different course of action right away. Efforts need to be taken to counteract these gender biases and give people who transition the tools and care they need to be healthy.

Gender bias and improper care can be incredibly hard for someone who is transitioning to go through, especially during times when they are sick or in need of a medical professional, putting them in an even more vulnerable position from the moment they walk into a clinic or ER. The pain stemming from improper care can cause transgender or nonbinary people to avoid seeking medical treatment for ailments or serious conditions. This can mean life or death for some, and the feeling that medical services are not available can push people toward actions that may point them in the wrong direction.

Many trans or nonbinary patients will turn online to try and find solutions to their ailments instead of going to a doctor. This further leads to misinformation and confusion among the community, often resulting in people believing things that are not true. One example is that amount of transgender men who believe that in order to transition, they need to get a hysterectomy, or else they will get uterine cancer.

The thought circulating online is that testosterone can cause uterine cancer if taken over time, and that it will be dangerous to transition without getting this intensive surgery. There is absolutely no rigorous research that supports this claim, and transgender men can indeed transition without putting themselves through this drastic surgery. Still, the idea is prevalent, and shows how difficult it is to find out the facts regarding transitioning, fertility, and what actually happens to the body when it goes through a transition.

Transitioning to a male or nonbinary identity is be difficult enough as it is, but going through pregnancy can add another level of hardship to this process. What makes the film so human is that McConnell struggles himself with what he is doing, and asks himself the same question, about why he wants to carry his baby. Nor is the process he goes through to make it happen. He considered a hysterectomy, but never went through with it — partly because he had not ruled out the possibility of having children.

In the film, we see how discombobulated McConnell becomes when he stops taking testosterone as he tries to conceive, using a sperm donor, and his body, in effect, goes into reverse. Everybody should experience it — especially men. On screen, his mother supports him with a mixture of tender loving care and the odd no-nonsense kick up the arse.

McConnell orders pancakes and bacon with maple syrup, and tells me the thing he most wants the film to do is normalise trans people. I think empathy is key in convincing people that trans people are actually quite normal, and live lives that are not sensational or scary.

Is there much convincing that needs to be done? Particularly at the moment, with the rise in transphobia. It just so happened that the time I was trying to conceive and carry coincided with the rise of anti-trans rhetoric around reform of the Gender Recognition Act.

Last year, the government opened a public consultation on proposed changes to the act that would allow trans people to self-identify bringing the UK into line with countries such as Denmark and Ireland. This would mean that a person no longer has to undergo an arduous and expensive process of presenting evidence to an anonymous gender recognition panel; they would simply sign a statutory declaration, akin to an oath.

Conversely, trans equality campaigners point to the fact that, while emotive, there is little evidence for this risk; service providers have argued that longstanding safeguarding measures are in place to keep all vulnerable women safe. The consultation period ended in October, and the government has yet to make an announcement on what happens next. In the same month, the government published figures showing that, over the past 12 months, anti-trans hate crimes had risen by almost a third from 1, in , to 1, in So I thought this film could be in lieu of meeting somebody — you could spend an hour and a half with me.

What drove him to put himself through so much, physically and emotionally? He recalls signing the consent form to start testosterone and being told it would leave him infertile. Trans men are still not being given the right information about their options, including how to carry their own children safely.

But such a route is expensive, complicated and the chances of success are small. McConnell discovered there were trans men in America who were having babies, and spoke to his doctor about becoming pregnant.

Even then, he was still battling with the idea. He worried that he might be ridiculed or attacked; that people would think he was transitioning into a woman; that as a man carrying a baby he was having his cake and eating it. But for me, having that genetic link is something I felt I needed to have.

There are no definitive figures when it comes to how many transgender men have given birth worldwide, or in Britain. While it is still rare, it is not quite as rare as is sometimes claimed.

When Scott Parker got in touch to say that he had given birth a few months earlier, the paper awarded him the honour and relegated Cross to second place. According to figures compiled by Medicare for Australia, one of the few national surveys, 75 people who identified as male gave birth naturally or via C-section there in , and 40 in I ask McConnell why it was so important for him to carry his own child and he replies with a question of his own: why does anybody want a child?

Why was it so important to be genetic parents? In the film, we see McConnell and his mother reminiscing over photographs of him as a child — tomboyish, blunt-fringed, energetic. The pictures brought back unhappy memories, he says, particularly the photographs taken during puberty and his teenage years. He was a bright child. Is that deliberate? This is my story of starting a family — so what on earth has my old name got to do with it?