From Pregnant Men to Artificial Wombs, the World Is Changing As We Know It
The way of life we know, how we think families start, who gives birth, who is called “mom” or “dad”, is cracking wide open. Science is pushing boundaries, and culture is scrambling to keep up. Pregnant men, uterus transplants, artificial wombs, what once sounded like science fiction is now real life.
Thomas Beatie proved it back in 2008 when he made headlines as the first publicly known pregnant man.
He wasn’t the last. More trans men have since shared their stories. But many still struggle. There is not enough medical research. There is little support. And healthcare workers often are not trained to help without judgment.
Kyle / Unsplash / Trans men, people assigned female at birth who live as men, can still get pregnant if they haven’t had surgery and stop taking testosterone for a bit.
Medical challenges make this even tougher. Pregnancy can worsen gender dysphoria for many trans men. Add that to the lack of data on how testosterone affects a baby in the womb, and you have a serious gap in care.
Artificial Wombs and Gender-Free Births
The way of life we are heading into includes artificial wombs and transplants that could let anyone carry a baby, no matter their sex at birth. The first successful uterus transplant that led to birth happened in Sweden in 2014. Now, experts are asking: if it worked in women without wombs, could it work in cis men or trans women too?
Some scientists say yes, with enough time and tech. Others bring up risks, like ectopic pregnancies in men. These involve embryos implanting outside the uterus, like on the bowel. That is dangerous and possibly deadly. So, it is not a real option yet.
Then there is the big leap: artificial wombs. Think of a baby growing entirely outside the human body in a lab. It is called ectogenesis. In mice, it is already happening. In 2023, Japanese researchers used lab-made eggs to produce live mouse pups. If it works in animals, can humans be next? Maybe. But even if the tech is ready, the world might not be.
Pixabay / Pexels / Our current way of life is built on binary ideas: mother and father, male and female, and gestation equals motherhood. But those labels no longer work.
If a man gives birth, is he the mother? What do we call a woman who didn’t carry the baby but raised it? Feminist thinkers like Suki Finn say we need better terms, ones that match how people actually live and love.
But lawmakers are still catching up. In many places, birth certificates, family courts, and surrogacy laws are built for a world that assumes only women give birth. That means trans parents often face court battles, custody issues, or legal confusion over their roles. It is outdated and harmful.
The Market for Making Babies Is Booming!
The way of life in the fertility world is booming. Assisted reproductive tech, like IVF, egg freezing, and surrogacy, is already big business. In 2022, it was worth over $25 billion. By 2030, it could hit $40.9 billion.
Tech is changing it fast. AI can help choose the best embryos. Cryopreservation lets people save eggs and sperm for later. Add artificial wombs or trans uterus implants, and the baby-making process starts to look like a high-tech service, not just a natural event.
But new tools come with big questions. Who gets access? Rich families or everyone? Will people rent wombs more often, and does that risk turning birth into a business deal? If we can make life in a lab, what rules do we need? Ethics is now the new frontier.