Oregon man claims to be six months pregnant BY NICOLE LYN PESCE
Wednesday, March 26th 2008, 7:00 PM
An Oregon man six months pregnant with a baby girl is raising controversy – and plenty of eyebrows – in living rooms across the country.
Thomas Beatie, born a woman, began sex reassignment 10 years ago, but opted to keep the female reproductive organs, undergoing breast surgery and testosterone treatment and marrying a woman. Although legally he is a man, biologically he's retained his ability to have children.
After his wife Nancy's hysterectomy, which left her unable to bear children, Beatie decided to carry the baby for both of them.
"Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male or female desire, but a human desire," he writes in a first-person piece printed in the gay magazine The Advocate.
He stopped his testosterone injections two years ago, and his menstrual periods picked back up after four months. Yet the unconventional couple faced a series of setbacks when looking into artificial insemination. They visited nine different doctors in one year before finally getting access to a sperm bank. He became pregnant with triplets soon after, but lost them in an ectopic pregnancy.
"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 recalls.
"Our situation sparks legal, political and social unknowns. Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs. Receptionists have laughed at us. Friends and family have been unsupportive."
The pair successfully conceived a second time, and their baby girl is due July 3.
"How does it feel to be a pregnant man? Incredible," he writes. "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."
SOURCE-A-ROO