Matt D From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 9502 posts, RR: 45 Posted (11 years 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 2887 times:
Now SOMEBODY please tell me why we would even need to consider this, unless it's just another attempt at gender/social [re]engineering. Either that, or we need to re-direct our research funds into something more useful since it's pretty obvious that these mad scientists have way too much time on their hands.
Dad may be mom in science's future
Bringing an abdomen baby to term is possible, making pregnant men imaginable.
By INGRID PERITZ
Toronto Globe and Mail
MONTREAL – It may be every woman's fantasy, and a nightmare for the typical man: creating a male mom.
The notion of pregnant men may still seem to be fiction, but the prospect inched closer to reality with a medical miracle in Montreal recently.
Dionne Grant, 30, delivered a healthy baby boy after the fetus developed in her abdomen. The birth - a rare ectopic pregnancy carried to term - proved that a baby can grow outside the womb.
Scientists have argued for years that there is no scientific barrier to implanting an embryo in a man's abdomen, where it would be carried to term then delivered through surgery.
Perhaps the greater barrier, some say, is psychological.
"Scientifically speaking, male pregnancy is possible, and it's a germane issue," said Dr. Vyta Senikas, of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. "But I don't know how men would put up with it if, every time they cough, they lost a little bit of urine. Or the hemorrhoids. Or the other physiological changes that naturally accompany pregnancy. I'm not sure men are psychologically prepared."
The miracle that gave rise to the male-mom speculation happened in Montreal's Sacre-Coeur Hospital on Aug. 6. A baby boy gestated for 37 weeks outside Grant's uterus.
Such ectopic pregnancies in the abdomen happen once in every 10,000 pregnancies. It is virtually unheard of for one to be carried successfully to term, since they are extremely dangerous to both the mother and child's health.
"When I opened her up, to my big surprise, there was no fetus in the lower portion of the uterus," said Dr. Robert Sabbah, whose lightning-speed care is credited with saving the baby's and the mother's lives.
The baby survived because its placenta had attached itself to the top of his mother's uterus. The trick for a man, doctors said in interviews, would be finding a place that could tolerate the implantation of the placenta, which feeds nutrients to the fetus.
While a male pregnancy is theoretically possible, risks remain, including massive internal bleeding and abnormal fetal development. Men would also have to take large doses of female hormones.
Cancidas From Poland, joined Jul 2003, 4112 posts, RR: 11
Reply 2, posted (11 years 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 2800 times:
i think that this is physically impossible. even while taking female hormones, which i doubt would help as they would have to be administered in very large doses at a heavy risk to the guy himself, a man could never deliver a child. we don't have the required equipment. it would have to be done by a cesarean section, which carries with it it's own dangers.
i can't believe that money is being spent for frivolous research like this! how about finding a cure to aids or ending blackouts etc... society needs to get it's priorities straightened out!
"...cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home."