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Man who gave birth is pregnant again
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-14 09:29 The "pregnant man" who gave birth earlier this year says he is expecting a second child. Thomas Beatie, a transsexual American man, said he did not go back on the male hormone testosterone after the birth of his daughter, Susan, in June 29 so he could have another baby.
"I feel good. I had my check-ups with my hormone level .and everything is right on track," he told Barbara Walters in an interview with ABC News. Mr Beatie, 34, who lives with his wife, Nancy, in Bend, Oregon, said the baby is due on June 12. A former Hawaiian beauty pageant finalist, he caused international controversy after he was pictured topless with a swollen stomach during his first pregnancy. He had previously posed as a muscular woman before his sex change with a bikini-clad Nancy in 2000. A second picture showed the couple in a wedding-style photograph taken in Honolulu in 2002. In April, while he was expecting baby Susan, Mr Beatie told US daytime TV queen Oprah Winfrey: "I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn't define who I am." "It's not a male or female desire to want to have a child. It's a human need. I'm a person and I have the right to a biological child." He once boasted that the only difference between him and other mothers was that he could not breastfeed. But even that problem appears to have been surmounted. The couple told ABC that Nancy, 46, who is infertile, has been breast-feeding Susan for the past four months. Opinion has always been fiercely divided over Mr Beatie's claim to be a man. Mr Beatie was born female - Tracy Lagondino - before undergoing "gender reassignment" surgery and having his breasts removed. He began taking male hormones several years ago, legally changed his gender and grew a wispy beard. However, he retained his female reproductive organs so he could one day become pregnant. He and Nancy, who run a screen-printing business, have been together for 10 years and married for five. Since the birth of their daughter, the couple have rarely been seen in public, keeping their blinds drawn and monitoring their property with surveillance cameras. They said their determination that Mr Beatie should be the father and Nancy the mother was thwarted by hospital staff who insisted it had to be listed as the other way around. Mr Beatie admits they have made money from the media interest in his pregnancy and he has written a book about his life. However, he insisted they were never motivated by money. "We've turned down about $2 million altogether from people wanting to do all sorts of things with us,'" he told ABC. "But as far as you know, doing it for the fame, I have to say I'm infamous. I mean, who wants to be unpopular, controversial and despised?"
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