Rest Your Weary Bones Ladies: Male Pregnancy Could Soon Be a Thing

The Cleveland Clinic in The United States has been researching womb transplants for the past number of years. The procedure was designed to facilitate pregnancy in women who are born without a womb or whose uteri are malfunctioning. Minds quickly began to wonder whether the procedure could be replicated in men. Health 24 have reported that Dr Karine Chung, director of the fertility preservation programme at University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine says the possibility exists: “My guess is five, ten years away, maybe sooner,” she said. “Today medical advances allow transgender women adjust their biochemistry to suppress male hormones and introduce female hormones, have breasts that can lactate, and obtain surgically constructed vaginas that include a 'neoclitoris', which allows sensation.” [caption id="attachment_268735" align="alignnone" width="298"] Dr Chirstine McGinn[/caption] Dr Chirstine McGinn, CEO of Papillion Gender Wellness Centre, says she believes every transgender female will opt for the procedure if the costs are covered by insurance. McGinn, a transgender woman and mother of twins, says to Health 24: "Human drive to be a mother for a woman is a very serious thing. Transgender women are no different". Lead researcher in the Cleveland Clinic, Andreas Tzakis, says: "Unlike any other transplants, they are 'ephemeral'. They are not intended to last for the duration of the recipient's life, but will be maintained for only as long as is necessary to produce one or two children." And as for men accepting transplants in the future? Chung believes it will be possible with future medical research. The most important factor is creating the natural support systems for pregnancy. “Of course men have none of these support systems – naturally – but none are impossible to create. Male and female anatomy is not that different,” says Chung. “Probably at some point, somebody will figure out how to make that work.”