giggles
Okay, so my arm still hurts. It's quite ridiculous. So therefore I must sulk some more. Um. What else?
A Totally Useless Discussion on the Validity of MPREG, in honour of Fern
Okay, so. This topic seems totally useless and improbable because really, men being pregnant? We all know the noticable exception is sea horses (which are infinitely more cool than humans), where the male carries the babies and then cares for them, but human men carrying babies? Impossible you cry! Outrageous! Something that should not be seen anywhere, even in the dark reaches of sci-fi. Because it is improbable - men do not have the means to give birth, let alone carry a foetus, and with our level of technology especially in regards to medicine, we would be ill equiped to handle such a situation.
But!
According to a couple of sources, and who knows how totally reliable and accurate they are, advances in medicine make it possible that such a fertilisation could take place. Whether or not it would be successful makes it silly to try. At least, that's what this website seems to think. Other websites, such as The Daily Princetonian and MalePregnancy.Com seem to think that it is possible, and even go as far as outlining what it would take. And really - it's totally not that far fetched. Well. Okay. Maybe not in this year, or the year after could we achieve this - especially due to moral and ethical concerns - but importantly, it is feasible.
So, how could a man become pregnant? According to the three websites I've listed, the pregnancy would be, definitely, an ectopic pregnancy - meaning, the fertilised ovum is implanted in any tissue other than the uterine wall - most occuring in the Fallopian tube, but can occur in the cervix, ovaries and abdomin. In the case of a male, and according to malepregnancy.com, IVF techniques would be used to enduce an ectopic pregnancy by implanting the embryo and placenta into the abdominal cavity, just under or into the peritoneum (surrounding lining). It is also noted there would be a severe risk of massive hemorrhage when the ectopic ruptures, one of the most common causes of women dying in pregnancy.
But I am getting ahead of myself. There is a step before the implantation.
The man would have to be given doses of female hormones (lutenizing hormone, folicle stimulating hormone, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, thyroid, and gamma fluro buterarone) to prepare him for the pregnancy. This is also done in older, postmenopausal women using donated eggs. Then, like I noted before, the embryo would be implanted, most likely through a laparoscopy in the man's abdomen near the omentum (a fatty, blood-rich tissue that hangs in front of the intestines). Once the implantation was complete, taking the hormones could cease. The umbilical cord and placenta are implanted, and metabolic exchanges between foetus and father (mother?) occure between mucosal and chorionic tissues - almost exactly the same as female pregnancies.
Delivering the baby would obviously require open surgery, specifically, a Cesarean section to remove both baby and placenta. Removal of the placenta poses a real danger as it forms connections with surrounding blood vessels, making a huge hemorrhave likely. The implantation of the embryo may also involve other structures in the abdomen, including the bowel, and it is possible that parts of other organs may need to be removed (according to malepregnancy.com).
Okay, so those are the details about how it could be done, but fandom opens up other doors of possibilities. Such fandoms like The OC, for example, are limited by the extent to which mpreg can be applied (also, in my opinion, the oc + mpreg = no) but in science fiction, or fantasy, it really is possible. My ultimate fandom is Stargate: Atlantis, because really, anything is possible. Especially since they have all that Ancient Technology at their disposal - there is a good chance the Ancients were able to overcome the problem of same sex couples, particularly males, not being able to have biological children in regards to technology. I mean, in Shalott's A Beautiful Lifetime Event she was able to even get passed the need for IVF in one of the males - technology, specifically a gestation unit, was able to control that aspect. In Enterprise, Trip Tucker (speaking of which, *swoon*) was impregnated by an alien species and I'm sure there are many more examples.
See? So not totally stupid and inconcievable.