Would it be possible to make a man experience pregnancy?

[StevesBollockAnalogy]

I'm hoping for scientific brains to come along and answer this, the bodily autonomy thread got me thinking as a few men waded in and started mansplaining. Could you physically give men the experience, or as close as possible, to what it's like to be pregnant?
I'm thinking a weighted stomach wrap that you add a bit more weight to very week or so. In later months there would be something that is programmed to 'kick' randomly. Of course pump them full of hormones! Stop them drinking/smoking/eating all sorts of foods. Take medicine to make them vomit and nauseous. I don't know that the above would be particularly healthy for them, but it seems reasonably doable? I know I've missed loads but I'm speculating.
I don't think simulating childbirth is possible, even peeing out a golf ball doesn't come close!
Hypothetically, would it be possible? How do you think it would go down?

I'm sure I saw an experiment where men could experience the pain of childbirth through electrical stimulus that made their muscles cramp painfully or something like that.

I guess what you're suggesting might be a start, but is there any way to recreate the fear all the time, the disgust you can feel, the permament changes that you fear could repel your partner and damage your relationship?

Pregnancy isn't an event, it changes you forever, not just physically.

You'd have to build variance into it as well, so some men would 'give birth' as easy as shelling peas and another would have a protracted labour which ends up with an assisted delivery or major abdominal surgery, and there would be no adequate way of telling who would have what. You would also have to have a random number who have hyperemesis, GD, PND, PP, abusive partners, judgement from random strangers. It would be interesting, but impossible, because everyone would know it's just an experiment and would relate differently to a man than they do to a woman. Society doesn't feel the need to police men in the same way as it does women, and I can't see that being any different in this experiment.

It's a great idea though and would be very interesting to follow through with.

You would need to ensure that there was a good chance of them developing mental health problems and a further change that said problems would not resolve for years.

You would also need to include small chances of death, permanent disability, post-partum psychosis etc.

And you would need to give them some physical damage to replicate birth, how extreme I guess would need to be randomly decided. Obviously there would be an extremely good chance that they would receive damage to their genitals. Chance of change/loss of sexual function, and problems with continence and so on would need to be factored in.

How many men would agree to that "experiment" I wonder.

The idea that carrying and delivering a baby is a kind of nil risk nil affort activity on the part of a woman is ludicrous, but seems to be the assumption of most people who are arguing against women having full bodily autonomy.

x post

Well I was just thinking whimsically (I was GrumpyOldNag, I have NC, but the sexist behaviour swap thread that got into classics was mine. I'm just speculating again now!) because there have been quite a few threads in which in a man pops out of nowhere and just spectacularly doesn't get it.

The "what's wrong with 30~ women" thread springs to mind! I mean pregnancy is peculiar to say the least, and I couldn't have imagined what it was actually like before I was pregnant so it's not that I blame for that! I'm just trying to think what could they do to realise even a fraction of what it is like to be a woman. Those I've come across don't even begin to get close to the practicalities of having a uterus- I mean even basics, if one of their major internal organs broke itself down and exited through their favourite orifice even once it would be the end of the world!

I guess I was just thinking up a more interesting option than trying to say THAT'S NOT THE POINT calmly again and again to the mansplainers any time any even vaguely feminist issue turns up!

Ooh sorry, x post with almost everyone there!

Yes exactly, how many would say "That's barbaric, why would you even think of such a thing?" when there are thousands if not millions of women who are pregnant at any one time!

As others have said I think you could build in some of the physical aspects, though difficult of course as it's different for every woman

But you would also want to bring in the way people around pregnant women treat them before, during and after birth

Not many would do it I thought the whole point of going through this is would be for the 'reward' at the end.

Absent a child it's just pain with no gain. Unless there is money involved (So there is some sort of incentive)

The point is though that there isn't always a 'reward' at the end of it all. Babies die, women have miscarriages, late term miscarriages, still births. In developing countries babies die far far too often, in the USA as well.

Pregnancy is a risky business, not just physically, but mentally and psychologically and there is no guarantee that the 'end goal' is anything like it.

You couldn't factor in your child being born with some kind of disability and the judgement that goes along with that.

If men want to pontificate on women's agency and bodily autonomy during pregnancy, then they need to actually understand what they are navel gazing about. And they can't.

Greenway this is prompted by a conversation around abortion, so the "reward" at the end is a baby that you didn't want in the first place.

The idea that many anti-abortionists seem to have is "why not just have the baby and give it away" and the point is that pregnancy and birth are not nil-risk nil-effort activities. "Just having the baby" is not as straightforward as that.

I agree with other posters that it's not just about the physical event of being pregnant. What about running the risk of getting pregnant, even if you are using contraception, every time you have sex and the impact that has on your sexual freedom? What about the effects on your body/hormones of taking contraception? What about the risk of being raped and having no control at all over being made pregnant? What about the fear of knowing your life is about to change irrevocably and you don't know if you will cope or if you will like the changes? What about simulating the financial worries? What about simulating telling your pissed-off boss and simulating the damage to your career and loss of financial independence? What about simulating the loss of social status and invisibility?

I think the physical effects and pain are the least of it but something also tells me if men did give birth there is no way they would be expected to endure pain and medical staff would give them the pain relief they wanted when they wanted it.

You could have people come up and comment on their progress through, I dunno, hair loss?

"Ooh, haven't you got bald since I last saw you?"

"Wow, that bald spot is so big now, you must be ready to pop?"

"Can I touch your bald spot?"

That doesn't even come close to simulating being pregnant - as others have said, there's the worry about the baby, the fear of the birth (either because it's unknown, or because you've done it before), the knowledge that after this there'll be a little dependent human being you're responsible for, endless tests, poking and prodding, indelicate questions from HCPs and the public, and all the rest of the shenanigans around it.

Then physically, it's not just about a weighty bump and feeling a bit sick, there's all the other weird and wonderful things (painful, lumpy vulva for a fortnight after birth anyone?), inability to be comfortable for more than 5 minutes in any position, needing to get up and pee 5 times a night, bits of you stretching, getting hairy (or bald), scaly or popping out.

And that's a completely normal, easy pregnancy - not even a tricky one!

I really didn't understand what I was letting myself in for by getting pregnant (well, except for the baby - actually I imagined life with a baby fairly accurately) - the ongoing impact least of all.

Pregnancy doesn't just last 9 months either.

It permanently changes a woman's body.

It's psychological, emotional and social experience as well as a physical one.

There is no comparison.

That's why men don't get it.