Born female, Trystan Reese began transitioning to male nearly 10 years ago and started taking hormone supplements. But biology can only change so much on the hormone supplements, and Reese has now found himself pregnant. The father is Biff Chaplow. Together, the two are already, uhh, father and, uhh, father (?) to 2 adopted kids, Chaplow’s nephew and niece.
“Every doctor that we spoke with said, ‘Absolutely, this is possible; absolutely, this is a safe and healthy medical decision to make,’” said Reece. “We know it’s not traditional, but we hope that people will see that this is just another way how love shows up in the world.”
It’s something they didn’t think was possible. The couple experienced a miscarriage six months prior to conceiving their son. They thought they missed their chance, but now believe everything happened for a reason.
Hailey and Riley understand this isn’t the norm, but are excited to get a baby brother. To them, this is normal and their family priorities haven’t changed.
“We are a dedicated couple; we are dedicated to each other; we are dedicated to our kids, and we plan on being as dedicated to our baby,” said Reese.
I’m OK being a man who has a uterus’
Reese, who was assigned the female gender at birth and says he kept his “original parts,” adds that he never wanted to change his body.
“I think my body is awesome. I feel like it’s a gift to have been born with the body that I did, and I made the necessary changes so that I could keep living in it, both through hormones and through other body modifications,” he shared in a video posted to the couple’s Facebook page.
“I’m OK with my body being a trans body. I’m OK being a man who has a uterus and has the capacity and capability of carrying a baby. I don’t feel like it makes me any less of a man. I just happen to be a man who is able to carry a baby.”
And People Magazine chimes in with:
“While I would do that over again a thousand times if I had to, I think we wanted to try to grow our family in a less stressful way,” Chaplow, 31, says. “We decided to see if we could make a baby biologically, and because Trystan is transgender, he was born with a female body.”
Reese had been taking testosterone treatments for years, but they learned that if he stopped, his cycle would begin again and they could safely become pregnant.
“We decided that we wanted to grow our family and that this would be a really good way to do it,” Chaplow says. “We could do it together, and not be surrounded around so much pain — well, emotional pain. I’m sure there will be lots of physical pain shortly [laughs].”
“We know dozens of transgender men who have gone through this exact same process, and there is now quite a bit of medical evidence that shows that this would be a safe and healthy thing for us to engage in, medically speaking,” Reese says. “So even though we’ve been a little more public than other transgender couples, parents, people who are carrying babies, we are certainly not amongst the first to ever do it.”
Ironically, the couple refer to the baby as a “son”, apparently assigning it a gender before the baby has a chance to make up its mind. How _____phobic. The baby is due July 14th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcJVHjRohFM
