Male pregnancy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Male pregnancy is the carrying of one or more embryos or fetuses by the male of any species inside their bodies. The majority of all pregnancies in the animal kingdom are carried by the female. In most heterogamous species, the males produce the spermatazoa and rarely host the zygote. However, examples of male pregnancy can be found in the animal kingdom, in mythology, and popular culture.
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[edit] In humans
Male pregnancy in humans has been limited to the realms of speculation, science fiction and comedy, as the phenomenon would be a biological impossibility under traditional circumstances.
Since men lack a womb (except for transmen), alternative measures would have to be made for an ectopic pregnancy. Fertilization would likely be done in vitro by implantation into the abdominal cavity, and starting the process would require the father to take female hormones—blurring the line between the sexes, from some viewpoints. Delivery would be done by caesarean section.
Some female-to-male transsexuals who interrupt hormone treatments can become pregnant, while still identifying and living as male—this is possible for individuals who still have functioning ovaries.[1] For example, Matt Rice (ex-partner of writer Patrick Califia), bore a child by artificial insemination.[2] From an identity standpoint, this could be considered a "male pregnancy", even though female physiology was involved. Should treatment of male-to-female transsexuals reach a point where post-operative females can become fertile, persons who were born biologically male (though identifying and living as female) could bear children, although this is currently impossible.
Some intersex people with XY chromosomes develop entirely female bodies and, if the individual develops a uterus, in vitro fertilization is possible.[3] This person would therefore be pregnant despite having a Y chromosome (which is usually associated with males).
[edit] Possible science of a human male pregnancy
Oral doses of female hormones would be administered to the man to make him receptive to the pregnancy. In vitro fertilization techniques would be used to induce an ectopic pregnancy by implanting an embryo and placenta into the abdominal cavity, just under or into the peritoneum.
Once implantation is complete, the man would stop taking hormones, because the pregnancy itself would take over. The embryo would secrete sufficient hormones to maintain its own growth and development.
The delivery will require open surgery (Cesarean section) to remove the baby and the placenta. Removal of the placenta would be the real danger because it forms such intimate connections with surrounding blood vessels that a massive hemorrhage would be likely. Implantation may also involve other structures in the abdomen, including the bowel and it is possible that parts of other organs might have to be removed. Several physicians who are well-accustomed to advanced and dangerous forms of ectopic pregnancies would have to be on-hand to handle any complication.
The first woman-to-woman womb transplant, in 2000 in Saudi Arabia, ignited speculation about another possibility—that of a male receiving a womb transplant and bearing a child within the donated womb.
[edit] In other species
A male seahorse takes and fertilises the ovum of the female, then bears the offspring. Pipefishes and seahorses are the only species in the animal kingdom to which the term "male pregnancy" has been applied.[4]
[edit] In mythology
Various mythologies have featured male characters birthing, but such events typically either take place in an entirely different fashion than an ordinary female pregnancy, such as Athena springing fully-formed from Zeus's forehead, or when the character has been rendered female in some way, such as the shapeshifter Loki turning into a mare to distract a stallion and ending up giving birth to Sleipnir.
[edit] In popular culture
Two comedy films centered around the theme of such an event in humans, Rabbit Test (1978) and Junior (1994), have been released. The latter's attempts are somewhat scientifically feasible; the former ignores the matter completely. Television episodes and series have featured such pregnancies as a result of alien-human interaction, including Futurama, American Dad!, Alien Nation, Dilbert and the episode "Unexpected" of Star Trek: Enterprise, as well as in the computer game The Sims 2. In an episode of Charmed, Leo becomes pregnant with Piper's baby for a short term; in the first episode of Torchwood Captain Jack mentions that he once got pregnant; in an episode of Red Dwarf, Lister becomes pregnant after visiting a parallel universe where male and female are reversed and he has sex with his counterpart; and an episode of Sliders depicts a world where men carry children to term because women lost the ability in a catastrophic disaster. The Cosby Show's sixth season features a dream sequence episode where a volcanic eruption releases spores causing male pregnancy and several characters fall victim; they ultimately give birth to nonhuman objects such as a model sailboat and a submarine sandwich. Sam Beckett occupies the body of a pregnant woman during an episode of Quantum Leap and at the show's conclusion gives birth to the child. The Quantum Leap premise is such that along with Sam, and possibly his friend Al, the viewer is the only one capable of seeing actor Scott Bakula's physical form in place of the currently possessed body, prompting speculation as to what it must have looked like during the child's delivery. Nevertheless, the director of photography refrained from including footage of Sam's genital area.
Thematically, pregnancy can be related to issues of parasitism and gender. Some science fiction writers have picked up on these issues, in "cross-gender" themes—e.g., Octavia Butler's Bloodchild. Lois McMaster Bujold's Ethan of Athos features an all-male society in which men use artificial wombs, but experience many of the psychological effects of pregnancy (anticipation, anxiety, etc.). In Marge Piercy's feminist utopian novel Woman on the Edge of Time, neither men nor women get pregnant, but men may take drugs to lactate and nurse the infant; the experience of "pregnancy" and the woman-only experience of nursing were sacrificed for gender equality.[5] In the Internet comedy series Red vs. Blue, the character of Tucker is impregnated by a parasitic embryo from an alien creature. Roger Corman's B-film Night of the Blood Beast [2] (1958) featured a male scientist being impregnated by an alien.
Male pregnancy is frequently seen in fan fiction; such stories may be denoted as "mpreg", a term coined by two writers under the pseudonyms of Taleya Joinson and Texas Ranger, who created and maintained what is believed to be the first fan fiction archive dedicated to stories of this genre in 1998. [6] The pregnancies may be the result of advanced medical technology (e.g., experiments on Mulder from The X-Files), mystical pregnancies, or are unexplained.
[edit] Fetus in fetu
Men with parasitic twins are not pregnant, but there are some similarities. For example, the parasitic fetus sometimes attaches to the host with an umbilical cord and grows in the host's abdomen. In one rare case, an Indian man named Sanju Bhagat carried his twin brother until he was 36.
[edit] External links
- http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/malepreg.html - Articles on the feasibility of the endeavor.
- http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2002/05/08/opinion/5154.shtml - An editorial detailing the issue.
- http://www.malepregnancy.com/ - A hoax site monitoring the world's first male pregnancy.
- http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/malepreg.htm - A Snopes.com page that attacks the previous link.
[edit] References
- ^ Faster than Life web page
- ^ Califa-Rice, Patrick (2000-06-21). [http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0025,califia-rice,15833,1.html "Two Dads With a Difference—Neither of Us Was Born Male "], Village Voice
- ^ Khadilkar, Vaman. "Intersex Disorders", Pediatrician On Call web site
- ^ Jones, Adam G.; Avise, John C. (2003-10-14). "Male Pregnancy" (HTML). Current Biology 13 (20): R791.
- ^ Piercy, Marge (1985-11-12). Woman on the Edge of Time. Fawcett. ISBN 0-449-21082-0.
- ^ [1] Wayback archival reference
