Pregnant Man
 

Just on the news...

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-w...nsgender-birth

Ah, Tom Beatie. I remember him. I didn't like the guy then...and I still don't like him now.

He's not a man if he kept his female organs. I don't know what the big deal is.

Here's a link to local coverage here: http://starbulletin.com/2008/03/26/news/story04.html

Yep. Without making too many judgments, I'm just going with, you aren't a man if you have a uterus.

That was my thought.

You are not a man if you can't ditch the extra X-Chromosome.

If (s)he wanted to become pregnant, (s)he clearly didn't want to become a man that badly. Still got the organs, still a woman.

All I can say is....if you're a transgendered man, married to a woman, why did you have artificial insemination to get pregnant, instead of your wife? The article didnt specify that his wife couldn't bear children (unless I totally missed it...), so I dont understand why this transgendered guy is seeking this attention. Why not have the wife get pregnant, instead of him?

Freakin lunatics.

Another article I read stated the wife had a hysterectomy.

Ahhhhh....gotcha. Well, I guess that makes sense.....but STILL...

ewww. Poor child.

scbelle brought this up in the weird news story thread and I responded here and here
I just feel bad for all the press that the child will get....

This must have been a slow news week...

Well the thing of it is...she (yes she not he) must have the baby and if I heard correctly the last couple of preganancies were ectopic pregnancies.


Before allegedly becoming pregnant about five months ago through home insemination, Beatie stopped taking testosterone injections and his "body regulated itself," he wrote. He said he was forced to abort a previous pregnancy of triplets because of life-threatening complications, but that now is due to give birth to a girl on July 3.

"How does it feel to be a pregnant man?" Beatie continued. "Incredible. Despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the man that I am."

In Hawaii, Beatie was known as Tracy LaGondino, then a chairwoman for the Civil Unions-Civil Rights group. Michael Golojuch, who joined LaGondino in a gay and lesbian March in Honolulu in 2001, said he was aware of her name change but that they had not talked since she moved away.

He only kept the internal organs, superficially, he's a man. Gender issues are a sensitive subject I know, but if someone says that they want to be identified as a man, they should be.

I don't know if I necessarily agree with that, being as there are a whole set of psychological tests that one has to go thru before they are even approved for gender reassignment. With that said...and after givng that article the once over, I am thinking how ethical is it to let this person go back and get themselves impregnated after they made a serious choice to become a man?

I am hoping that this doesn't set a precedent that those who are opting for gender reassignment will follow along and want to have the best of both worlds.

I apologize if this sounds harsh...but the moment you make that decision to switch...either do it and go all the way with it or don't do it at all.

I almost feel like this person went 1/2 way and is regressing....next thing he will want to breastfeed.....

I agree that the individual should be identified as male for the purposes of how that individual is treated by law or culture - however, scientifically, this is not the same as a male having a child, and I can't think that there is any positive in treating this any other way.

I wonder how the birth certificate will read. Is there a legal definition for mother and father?

If 'he' kept his internal organs and did not get a sex change, then he's still a woman (superficially or not). He can't from the outside look like a man w/o a penis.

What i don't understand is why couldn't they adopt, or get a surrogate? Doesn't this whole pregnancy thing negate the fact that this person wanted to be identified as a man.

To me, if you want to be identified as a man, then you should act like a man. Men don't get pregnant.

This still goes to show that women believe they still have the right to change their minds no matter what....and be right about it. :)

Won't happen...He had a mastectomy as part of the transistion.

I don't think I agree. I probably would refer to someone I knew in real life by whatever gender they asked me to mainly to be polite, but I don't know that taking hormones and maybe even having surgery really does change your sex in a way that the state should be obligated to recognize.

This "guy" is one example why. The state where he currently lives recognizes him as a man and he has a uterus and is pregnant. He's not a man by any sane standard, and I'm not sure they rest of us are obligated to play along because he thinks he feels like a man despite actually being biologically a women.

Is his "wife" unable to bear children? Did I miss that? Cause otherwise, why do this other than for the publicity.

eta - okay, found it. But still . . . I feel for this child. Poor thing will be famous for the rest of her life - for something she had nothing to do with.

From what I understood from the article, he did get gender reassignment surgery, however they left the internal organs, that is what I meant by superficially, he is a man.

Adopting is hard enough when you are simply gay, adoption agencies would make it nearly impossible for a transgendered person to adopt.

And the statement that men don't get pregnant, it isn't impossible biologically, theoretically a man could have an implanted pregnancy in the abdominal cavity, it would act like an ectopic pregnancy.

Ok, wait...so if he received a penis, how were they able to inseminate "him?" And i'm going to guess its going to have to be a c-section, then. They still could have gotten a surrogate.

I understand the need people have for children, but this is just crazy. I feel bad for this child and what he/she might have to go through.

ETA: your comment about abdominal pregnancy--could be true. But ectopic pregnancies 99% of the time don't survive and can be fatal to the "mother." I hope that no doctor would ever perform that on a true man.

Kstar,

I think for some of us, we just don't accept that biological sex is as mutable as the transgender advocacy community is telling us that it's supposed to be.

Just because a person is willing to take sex hormones and perhaps have surgery on his or her original genitals doesn't actually, in the eyes of some and maybe even many, really mean that the "transgendered" person is in any real sense the sex that he or she feels like he or she is in his or her head.

I think a lot of us are willing to go along with the idea that it seems nice and tolerant socially to pretend whatever the transgendered person wants us to and aren't going to freak out about which bathroom a person uses, but it doesn't really mean that we really accept it at any kind of deep level. We wouldn't set him or her up with family members to date or date him or her ourselves, for instance, because we don't really believe that they are really what they've been "reassigned" to.

Just like so many threads in this forum, there's a great South Park episode or two on this topic. I'm primarily thinking of one in which one of the kids gets racial reassignment surgery.

From my advanced molecular genetics classes that included molecular developmental and genetics:

Mostly all human zygotes (after the egg is fertilized by the sperm) before the 8 celled stage (~48 hours) prior to uterine implantation, is "non-sexual" having no sex organs. It is thought, but has not been proven, that a powerful genetic rearrangement occurs at some point causing one of the X chromosomes to become a Y chromosome. I think recently, they have found 1-2 genes that regulate that process and it is epigenetic.

It is testicular formation that makes a male. NOT penile formation. The genes that make the penis are on other chromosomes, not the sex chromosomes.

Even in completely impoverished, malnourished conditions, the segregation of gender at least as the genetic level is maintained. For the areas that there are gross births of pseudo-hermaphrodites, are areas that have chemical environmental hazards, namely lead or PCB's--really nasty crap where babies are born with cyclopia and 8 legs...

This woman-turned-man did not have her female insides surgically removed. She kept her ovaries, oviducts and uterus--the key organs genetically that mandate a female and is strongly regulated by estrogen and progesterone with the hypothalums-pituitary axis. Shutdown with testosterone will only cause facial hair growth or hirusitism, and some features of a man, smaller breast size, and thigh stature, with pelvic movement.

If anything, I would be concerned with fetal health, brain development and behavior as one grows up. If female, it might not be a big deal--except it's fugly... If male, I don't know his package may be limited...

I was really thinking about sex being pretty much set by the time you are born, but it's interesting to know what happens in utero in this regard.

Actually, very very few female-to-male transgenders have "bottom" surgery. Basically, "bottom surgery," which would involve a hysterectomy and reconstruction to create a penis, is both expensive and kind of useless (the resulting penis is usually only 2-3 inches long, and you still have to sit down to pee). So, chances are Tom has everything that other women have below the belt. Taking testosterone halted the periods and increased libido. So, once the hormone therapy ended, periods probably came back and it was possible to conceive.

I'm sorry, you just can't switch back whenever it's convenient for you. Isn't this why people going through gender reassignment go through years of therapy before a doctor signs the papers approving the actual surgeries?

Well wouldn't that negate the fact that Tom had gender reassignment surgery? (according to what kstar read) because from what i've learned about that type of surgery, it is a "bottom" surgery. Idk, i'm confused lol.

Exactly. In my opinion, this shemale (for a lack of a better term) is making a mockery of all the transgender people. Like i've said before, you choose to live as a man, you should act like a man. If you and your significant other want children, you should go through the same measures as barren couples do.

So (s)he will be able to give birth naturally? This is so strange...

he/she will be able to give birth "naturally". According to what I read, "he" has only had the upper reconstructive surgery (mastectomy) and hormone therapy. There has been no genital reconstructive surgery done, otherwise there would be no way to "get pregnant".

Female => Male gender transformation is so much more difficult that most times the genital component is not completed.

I have many many friends who are transgendered...and transexual at various stages of change. (you can be transgendered WITHOUT being transexual) I understand the reasons behind what he is doing, although I can't say I agree with doing it.

The way I understand it, apparently, the full gender reassingment surgery makes an extention at the clitoral region where it is the "most similar" in responsiveness that occurs in the male. all the female parts are removed: ovaries, oviducts and uterus. I do not think it is possible surgically to create a prostate, and insert the urinary tract through it, since it is a gland, so some how it must be bypassed.

The uterus has endometrium which is functionally different from spermatogonia producing cells from the scrotum from the testicles. So, it may be structurally and physically look similar, but not pathologically similar.

Sorry for the misspelling, but right now, I am inebriated...

If this person is pumped full of artificial hormones in order to have male-characteristics and be legally "a man", I wonder what the health of the baby will be, being exposed to all of these unnatural hormone levels? Weird.

Eta: I say this because I read a book called "All She Wanted", by Aphrodite Jones, which was the story of Teena Brandon (i.e. the "Boys Don't Cry" movie). When Teena's Mom was pregnant with her, the Mom did take a short course of some type of hormone therapy (I can't remember what for...) and I'm convinced that the fetus of Teena being exposed to that adversely affected her.

Just out of curiously, what led you to have "many many friends" who are transgendered? As just as a statistical matter, having many many transgendered friends seems like it would be something that few people could claim, and I'm curious about the circumstances. It seems like it would be tied to working in a particular field or, of course, meeting the friends of friends in the context of supporting groups maybe.

hee hee. Inebriated and posting about transgendered people on GreekChat, who would have thunk?

I don't work in a field that would bring me into contact. My closest contact is a family member. I can think of at least a dozen or so...some I would consider more "close" than others. Some are "friendly acquaintances" (as I would go out with them to have drinks after work). I have met them through other friends who are transgendered as well.

No they aren't all "gay". I actually know two male=>female transexuals who are lesbian lovers :).

They are all people just trying to fit their bodies to their "souls".

You should seem me when I get high... That's even more hilarious.

He'll be on Oprah tomorrow.

It's a Girl for the 'Pregnant Man'

I hope they're sure this one's a girl.

What's interesting is that it was a natural delivery. :eek:

He's still physically a woman.

thank you! it really bugs me that that attention grabber is billing herself as a man who is pregnant. as we say in the south,"that dog don't hunt"!

Yeah, I mean it's just a chick.