Non-Trans man is pregnant too!

[expanding_x_man]

Well, we ain't the only guys out there getting pregnant. Thank goodness for that. Especially since the pregnant trans man news is now on major news outlets and people are quite, ah, perplexed.

Pregnant Trans Man story hits the national news

Here is a bit of info on a pregnant non-trans man:
Movie clip of pregnant non-trans man I was

Comments

[turkishb]

Yeah, this performance art is quite a few years old. I think a lot of the testosterone fears are a little unwarranted. Cisfemales sometimes have large doses of testosterone naturally. My gf, for instance, has PCOS and can't menstruate without medication. She may have a lot of trouble conceiving. But women with PCOS can and do have children, and it's not considered as vastly endangering the child afaik.

[turkishb]

I halfway take it back about the PCOS. It does increase the chance of miscarriage, but that's mostly due to implantation problems. Given he's 5 months pregnant that's not much of a problem.

I think people are also forgetting that you go off hormones, and your body is not permanently altered. Your cells are not twenty years old. They regenerate. Hormones either turn certain functions on or they don't. Again, afaik according to my endo, the biggest problem is the atrophy. But if this man conceived, than I doubt he's actually put his child at serious risk.

I think our fears might be a little over-blown and unwarranted. Testosterone is serious, yes, but it is naturally present in all ciswomen too. We're not shooting crack into the fetus' eyeballs.

[expanding_x_man]

I think people are also forgetting that you go off hormones, and your body is not permanently altered. Your cells are not twenty years old. They regenerate He was on T for eight years also. A long, long time. It is amazing in a way that this can happen at all

[dogboi]

Your cells are not twenty years old.
Unlike most cells in the body, eggs actually are fairly old! They are created during our early development and after that no more. Other health conditions for children sometimes arise as eggs deteriorate over time. So its not inconceivable that we could potentially tweak our eggs with T.
Not to mention many cells (beard, voice, etc.) are permanently altered. It seems unremarkable that some internal cells also have a similar shift in behavior after T is introduced.

That said, no guarantee's of health issues either! I mean, Matt Rice's kid seems just fine. I actually looked up the PCOS thing as well when i was wondering about all this and found at least one study that indicated children born to PCOS mothers were about as healthy as the general population.

[expanding_x_man]

I mean, Matt Rice's kid seems just fine

This is not meant as an indictment of Matt, but his son is autistic.

[catamorphism]

Just like lots of kids whose parents aren't trans (and those kids don't get held up as examples of why it's dangerous for cispeople to reproduce... although I, for one, would make the argument that it is.)

[expanding_x_man]

Actually, I think they do get held up as examples of why its dangerous for some cis people to reproduce. I have a friend who has a Down's syndrome son that she gave birth to over 40. Somewhere, someone may have put her case into some statistics on Down's children and women over 40. I've read of these cases before, which is why I know there is a connection.

I am actually not 'holding up' Matt's kid, or any particular kid as an example, but the person who commented before me had said that the child was "fine" and I was adding information.

Again, there are many autistic children now and no one knows the reason, so frankly, being post-transitioned may not have anything to do with it. However, if I was going to make a decision about getting pregnant in my post-transitioned state, I would want to know how other children were.

Does that mean we shouldn't do it? It is up to each person, but again, it is not something I would recommend. But, if they do -- best of luck.

[dogboi]

And for what its worth, i did appreciate your filling in that information! And as you mentioned below autistic and "fine" can certainly co-exist :-) even with it being more work. But with what little info we have, it does seem worth while to get it out there so we can try to make our own best informed decisions.

I would agree, there is a long history of all sorts of cisgender people getting harassed for deciding to have children when there was an assumed risk of some disability. It seems unfair to the many people currently working to counter this kind of prejudice to imply only trans people are getting criticized in this way.

[turkishb]

Yes, that is true about the eggs! Good point. Still, I think PCOS research suggests the effects aren't direly dangerous.

[expanding_x_man]

Well, ya know, I figure my eggs are just sitting there in that an atrophying ovary! That tiny little thing that's all dead looking! Or, one of those atrophied things. So, I wouldn't be surprised if the eggs are affected. But - who knows? The human body is very adaptable. This also, shows how strong that underlying genetic blueprint is, apparently. Which makes me queasy. But, it is true. Our bodies are made to reproduce, at least most people, and -- they just take to it very well.