Trans pregnancy information

[MoonAndStar]

I’m an HCP working on an assignment on trans men and pregnancy. What started as a fairly basic ‘access to healthcare’ type idea has snowballed somewhat.
There’s a bit of a lack of actual research out there, and what I can find focussed on people who identify as men and their (very individual) experiences.
Also most of the feminist/trans stuff focussed on the trans woman, male violence, gender stereotype, male privilege type arguments.
Pregnancy and birth rights are so closely intertwined with women’s rights and now we are being pushed towards a kind of gender neutral way of providing care and god forbid anyone actually points out that women give birth for fear of being accused of transphobia.
Any ideas of where to start to find published discussion around this?

(V long term MNer namechanged)

The cognitive dissonance experienced by a transman going through a planned pregnancy must be off the scale.

I tried Reddit. Googled "reddit trans man pregnant". Got quite a lot of hits. Whether there's any factual/medical content I didn't explore. But it's a start.

Would your most productive parallel source of research be women, who for whatever reason, are distressed by pregnancy?

For example: theconversation.com/tokophobia-what-its-like-to-have-a-phobia-of-pregnancy-and-childbirth-91271

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1742837/

I imagine that pregnancy would also be a difficult experience for women with eating disorders. The disassociation from their bodies, perhaps rooted in trauma, is another kind of bodily dysmorphia.

I'm afraid I can't share any research with you but I would like to say that as a woman going through my second pregnancy, I have noticed a definite trend for erasing the word "woman" and replacing it with "person" - in official communications from the maternity hospital (social media updates about changes to services due to CV19, for example). I find it offensive to be referred to as a "pregnant person" or a "birthing person". It is our female biology which allows us to be pregnant and give birth.

While I can imagine that there must be deeply complex reasons for a trans man to be going through pregnancy, and it must be a difficult experience in many ways, I find it hard to believe that someone who would be so deeply traumatised by the use of the word "woman" in relation to maternity services would choose to go through it in the first place.

FWIW I would be interested in research on the following:

• actual numbers of trans men who go through pregnancy and birth, put in context ie compared to the number of women
• actual experiences of trans men using maternity services, how they feel about the language used, and how strongly they feel about it in comparison to other aspects of their experience
• how women feel about their experience and how they feel (or would feel) about the word "woman" being erased altogether.

As for what trans women think about it, I couldn't give less of a fuck, as it has nothing to do with them. They can't get pregnant or give birth so they can bloody well leave us to it.

As for "chestfeeding"... don't get me started!

PS My recent(ish) thread on this, probably more ranty than helpful!
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3887308-Pregnant-people-and-birthing-people

- actual numbers of trans men who go through pregnancy and birth, put in context ie compared to the number of women

Given the invasive treatment which is often needed (IVF, coming off male hormones, stimulation with female hormones) I'd imagine it's fairly minimal but would also be interested in seeing figures.

It would be interesting to research the extent of the dysphoria in TM who go down this route, given the extent we are led to believe their female body distresses TM. When pronouns, misgendering etc. apparently cause so much distress, how much worse does dysphoria become when their female body goes through this female process? And does neutralising language used really minimise dysphoria to a manageable level when their body is doing what female bodies do when pregnant?

None of this makes much sense in the context of the push for 'inclusiveness' in the pregnancy process which is a uniquely female experience.

^This

In all honesty, I don't understand why a trans man would want to get pregnant at all. There is nothing more female , by definition. If they want a baby, they can adopt or have a surrogate. But either way, I don't get why hospitals are erasing the 99% of pregnancies that involve women who are happy to be referred to as women. It's surely an issue of simple proportionality. They probably think the tran lobby will send them death threats , but I bet the trans lobby doesn't give a fuck about trans men.

I don't agree with surrogacy. I do understand the desire to have your own biological child. So I can imagine which a trans man might choose to go through pregnancy despite the difficulties. I still don't think that means maternity services should stop using the word "woman", though.

which why

"I imagine that pregnancy would also be a difficult experience for women with eating disorders. The disassociation from their bodies, perhaps rooted in trauma, is another kind of bodily dysmorphia."

Funnily enough I think it was (accidentally) becoming pregnant that put the final nails in the coffin of my anorexia (nervosa and bulimia, for about 15 years on and off). Esp the bulimia - at the time I was still secretly bingeing / purging. Food became a way of nurturing the baby - my relationship with it became healthy - and not a way to numb pain.

Sorry if that's a bit of a derail..

Language and discourse shouldn't be changed for the vanishingly small percentage of "transmen" who go through pregnancy and birth. A tiny minority shouldn't call the shots like this.

All of This. Thank you.
Now to put it into actual words.

Hate to say this but Sally Hines is currently engaged in research.
transpregnancy.leeds.ac.uk/about/
I echo what everyone is saying, pregnancy is not gender neutral and there should never be erasure of sex as the baseline. Women who self id as men should be treated with compassion but not at the expense other women.

MidClegs, I’m delighted to hear of your recovery! Well done, I hope you and baby are well and healthy now.