Trans Men Don't Have to Choose Between Transitioning and Having Kids

A new study, published in medical journal Fertility and Sterility in November 2019, found that trans men have no more trouble getting pregnant via assisted reproductive technology than their cis woman counterparts do, even trans men who had already begun taking testosterone. In an interview with Medscape Medical News on Tuesday, one of the co-authors of the study said she hopes her team’s findings encourage trans men and their providers to feel more empowered to seek out fertility options post-transition, if they wish.

"Transmales [sic lmao] worry that they've thrown in the towel, and by committing to testosterone have started on a pathway with no return, but these data suggest they still have options," Resetkova told Medscape.

While this might be the first formal study to show that trans men can still conceive via assisted reproductive technology, even after starting HRT, previously 'moned-up trans men having babies is nothing new. That aspect of this news is not all that surprising—at least not for anyone who’s spent enough time around trans people to know that trans men can and often do get pregnant. To echo what journalist Katelyn Burns wrote in a 2018 them story about trans women and breastfeeding: “What’s more surprising is that it took this long for a medical journal to document the process.”

It’s important to note that all the trans men on hormones who participated in the Fertility and Sterility study stopped their HRT while trying to conceive. Resetkova and her co-authors don’t rule out the possibility of trans men conceiving while continuously taking testosterone, though “further investigation needs to be performed.” Community knowledge tells me that conception under those circumstances is unlikely, but who knows—I’m not a doctor. All I know is that assisted reproductive technology sounds really expensive and probably extremely cost-prohibitive for the vast majority of trans men who might want to make use of it.

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