Male pregnancy refers to the incubation of one or more embryos or fetuses by the male of any species. Almost all pregnancies in the animal kingdom are carried by female organisms. In all heterogamous species, the males produce the spermatozoa and rarely, if ever, host the zygote (the seahorse is a notable exception).
The Syngnathidae family of fish has the unique characteristic where females lay their eggs in
a brood pouch on the male's chest, and the male incubates the eggs.
Fertilization may take place in the pouch or before implantation in the
water. Included in Syngnathidae are seahorses, the pipefish, and the weedy and leafy sea dragons. Syngnathidae is the only family in the animal kingdom to which the term "male pregnancy" has been applied.
Pregnancy among intersex and transgender people
Some intersex people with XY chromosomes develop entirely female bodies and, if the individual has a uterus, can gestate an embryo conceived in the lab. The typical karyotype for a male is XY, so in this case the pregnant person has a Y chromosome. Animals too can be intersexed, depending on specificities of the species involved.
Some transmen (female-to-male transgender people) who interrupt hormone treatments can become pregnant, while still identifying and living as male. This is possible for individuals who still have functioning ovaries. Although these individuals have XX chromosomes, from the standpoint ofgender identity they are pregnant men.
For example, Matt Rice bore a child in 1999 by artificial insemination during his relationship with writer Patrick Califia. Thomas Beatie, who chose to become pregnant because his wife was infertile, wrote an article about his pregnancy in The Advocate. The Washington Post further broadened the story on March 25 when blogger Emil Steiner called Beatie's pregnancy the first "legal" male pregnancy on record, in reference to the state of Oregon recognizing Beatie as male. He gave birth to a girl in 2008. Beatie is now pregnant again, as announced byBarbara Walters on The View.
The possible science of an induced male pregnancy in humans
Since most men lack a womb, alternative measures would have to be made for an nontubal abdominal ectopic 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. In women, such pregnancies have a 5% viability rate. Once implantation was
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 would require open
surgery (Cesarean section)
to remove the baby and the placenta. The latter would be the real
danger because it forms such intimate connections with surrounding blood vessels that a massive hemorrhage would
be likely. Implantation might 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 were
well-accustomed to advanced and dangerous forms of ectopic pregnancies
would have to be on-hand to handle any complications. The real problem
with a male pregnancy of this type is not its plausibility, but if the
man could survive it, since a man's body is not meant for birth. In
women, ectopic pregnancies are generally removed as soon as possible.
The fetus would also be in danger of complications because it would be
deprived of the protection of a uterus.
An alternative to simple induction of an ectopic pregnancy is the use of a womb transplant from a donor, or an artificial womb. The first uterine transplant was performed in Saudi Arabia in 2000,
from one woman to another. This advance drew speculation about the
possibility of a male receiving a womb transplant, and bearing a child
from the transplanted womb. Womb transplants to males have been
successfully performed in animals.
Fetus in fetu
An extremely rare condition in which a fetus can grow inside the body is called "fetus in fetu". This is a developmental abnormality in which a fertilized egg splits as if to form identical twins,
but one half gets enveloped by the other, and an entire living organ
system with torso and limbs can develop inside the host. The abnormality
occurs in 1 in 500,000 live births in humans.
The case of Sanju Bhagat, a man from Nagpur, India,
attracted attention in 1999 for the length of time (36 years) he had
carried his parasitic twin inside his body, and the size of the growth.
Since Bhagat had no placenta, the growth had connected directly to his
blood supply.
In fiction
Mythology
Various mythologies feature
male characters giving birth, but such events typically take place in
an entirely different fashion than an ordinary female pregnancy, such
as Athena springing fully-formed from Zeus's forehead, or Dionysus being born from his thigh. In Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu gives birth to Lord Brahma thus: a lotus emerges from his navel, like an external placenta and womb, carrying Brahma within. Male mythological figures may become pregnant when 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.
Pregnancy in science fiction
Thematically, pregnancy can be related to the issues of parasitism and gender. Some science fiction writers have picked up on these issues, in "cross-gender" themes — e.g., Octavia E. Butler'sBloodchild. Ursula K. Le Guin's award-winning The Left Hand of Darkness,
which contains the sentence "The king was pregnant", explores a society
in which pregnancy can be experienced by anyone, since gender is
variable within each person's lifetime. 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, leaving that to artificial wombs, but both sexes may lactate and nurse the infant; the specifically female experiences of pregnancy and nursing were opened to men in the cause of gender equality. Sheri S. Tepperuses male pregnancy as a form of political commentary in The Fresco, when intergalactic peace officers take politicians at their word that all life is sacred.
Male pregnancy has featured on television. In season 4 of the popular machinima series Red vs. Blue, a Covenant Elite impregnated Tucker with a parasitic embryo. At the end of the season Tucker gave birth to a miniature alien off-screen; it was named Blargity-Blarg Tucker, and is also called Junior or Abomination.
Two comedy films centered around male pregnancy: Rabbit Test (1978) and Junior (1994). The latter's attempts are somewhat scientifically feasible; the former does not address the matter.
In The Fairly OddParents television movie Fairly OddBaby,
it is revealed that it's the male fairies who carry the children.
Because no one knew how to deliver a fairy baby since one had not been
born for thousands of years, and the fact that Cosmo wanted to be rid of
labor pain, the baby was wished out and taken out by magic.
In the Sims 2,
both sexes can have babies while in the adult stage. Males can be taken
by aliens and come back expecting an alien baby. Luckily for the male
sims, once they give birth, the alien sim can be raised like a normal
sim.
In
Futurama, Kiff, Amy's Boyfriend, comes from a species where the males
bear the child. However, the method of pregnancy comes from direct skin
contact with either sex.
Virgil Wong, a performance artist, created a hoax site claiming to detail his pregnancy featuring a fictitious male pregnancy.
In fanfiction, the concept of male pregnancy is abbreviated to "mpreg"; although it is more common in slash stories, it occasionally is written into a "het" pairing. Mpreg is more common in fanfiction based on a fantasy or science fiction setting, where a canon-compliant explanation for male pregnancy may be given.
In an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, aptly named "Unexpected", the Chief Engineer, Charles "Trip" Tucker III, becomes pregnant with an Xyrillian child by means of prolonged touching.
Two episodes of Dilbert are
focused on the title character becoming pregnant due to a Rocket
launched by Ratbert that collected DNA samples of a robot, a cow, a
hillbilly, an alien, a billionaire, and 17 engineers. The baby turns out
to be a mix of all of them.
In the show, The Venture Bros., which airs on Adult Swim, one of the main cast, Dr. Thaddeus S. "Rusty" Venture,
is revealed to have eaten his twin brother in the womb. The story
begins simply with Venture having dreams of being in the womb and
gnawing on his brother and climaxes in an episode wherein his stomach
enlarges, making his sons believe he is pregnant, and a large tumor
being removed from his gut. The tumor turns out to be his twin brother
who survived inside his body and, when removed, escapes and claims a
portion of the Venture inheritance, calling himself Jonas Venture. The
only side-effect, it seems, of his inhabitance of his brothers body, is
his small size.
In 2002, Japanese artist Hiroko Okada created
a project titled: "The Delivery by Male project". The project is a
video-intallation work with a large size screening depicting the life of
S.K.san that decided to go for pregnancy, and a small monitor that
displays a female doctor who gives seemingly scientific explanations on
how the pregnancy was achieved. The small monitor is placed at the
bottom of the large screening of K.S.san excitement with his coming
baby. Apart from the two screenings, there is an accompanying project
titled "Future Plans" (2003) where there are several photograhic images
of young and sweet-looking males, all appearing to be pregnant, holding
their tummies, displaying a proud pregnancy. Rumor has been spread that
Okada used images from her own pregnancy to create these funny looking
guys.