Profile
Photos
Comments
'Pregnant man' Thomas Beatie gives birth to baby girl
(Kristian Dowling)
Thomas Beatie had the baby in a natural birth at a hospital
The pregnant man who conceived a child after a gender-reassignment operation
has apparently given birth to a healthy baby girl.
“She’s really cute, really pretty,†a source told ABC News.
Thomas Beatie, 34, told People magazine that he had given birth at a hospital
in Bend, Oregon on Sunday. “The only thing different about me is that I
can’t breastfeed my baby. But a lot of mothers don’t,†he said, adding that
he planned to publish a book about the experience this autumn.
The bearded Mr Beatie was born a girl and named Tracy Lagondino, but had
gender-reassignment surgery and is now legally male and married to Nancy.
The couple, together for ten years, run a custom screenprinting business in
Bend.
He decided to get pregnant because his wife had had a hysterectomy. He was
able to conceive because he kept his female organs when he switched genders.
To conceive, Mr Beatie stopped the bimonthly testosterone injections he was
receiving as part of his sex change.
The couple bought anonymous donor vials from a sperm bank and, struggling to
find a doctor willing to help them, resorted to home insemination with a
syringe bought from a vet that is typically used to feed birds.
“I actually opted not to do anything to my reproductive organs because I
wanted to have a child one day. I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn’t
define who I am,†Mr Beatie told the TV talk-show host Oprah Winfrey in
April. “I feel it’s not a male or female desire to have a child. It’s a
human need. I’m a person and I have the right to have a biological child,â€
he said.
Mr Beatie caused a sensation when he went public with his pregnancy in
Advocate, a gay magazine. He posed holding his bulging naked stomach for a
photograph reminiscent of Demi Moore’s headline-grabbing 1991 cover photo
for Vanity Fair. “How does it feel to be a pregnant man? Incredible,†he
wrote. “I will be my daughter’s father, and Nancy will be her mother. We
will be a family,†he said.
A cameraman for the TMZ website filmed him leaving the hospital in a hooded
sweatshirt, without a bulging stomach. In his Advocate article, Mr Beatie
recounted the struggles he faced to have a child.
“Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious
beliefs. Health care professionals have refused to call me by a male pronoun
or recognise Nancy as my wife. Receptionists have laughed at us. Friends and
family have been unsupportive; most of Nancy’s family doesn’t even know I’m
transgender,†he said. His first successful insemination ended in a
life-threatening ectopic pregnancy with triplets, resulting in the loss of
all his embryos and his right Fallopian tube. “When my brother found out
about my loss, he said, ‘It’s a good thing that happened. Who knows what
kind of monster it would have been?,†he wrote.
Mr Beatie has said he may have
I'm with you martin