Medical science has progressed in leaps and bounds over the last several decades.
In the 1970s, Louise Brown became the first ever 'test tube baby' to be conceived via in-vitro fertilization, which completely changed the way we thought of reproduction. Then, in the 1990s, we managed to create Dolly the sheep - the first ever living clone - proving that science can sometimes achieve what nature cannot. And now, in 2017, it seems that we may be close to making it possible for men to become pregnant.
In fact, Dr Richard Paulson, the President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), says that people who were assigned male at birth could be carrying unborn children as soon as "tomorrow".
Of course, there have been a number of pregnant men in the past - but all of them were transgender individuals who were assigned female at birth, and therefore had wombs and the capacity to become pregnant without medical intervention.
However, in a speech given at the ASRM's annual meeting recently, Dr. Paulson explained that, given the abilities of modern technology, there's no anatomical reason why a womb could not be transplanted into a male body.
“There would be additional challenges," he conceded, "but I don’t see any obvious problem that would preclude it."
This is excellent news for any women with male partners who are either incapable or unwilling to carry a child themselves, and - perhaps more importantly - for trans women or other individuals born without wombs who want children but are not anatomically equipped to become pregnant.
”I personally suspect there are going to be trans women who are going to want to have a uterus and will likely get the transplant," said Dr. Paulson, who added that anybody who did undergo this procedure - regardless of gender - would almost certainly have to deliver the baby via a cesarean section.
In addition to this, men who choose to carry a child would probably have to undergo a certain amount of hormone treatments in order to replicate the chemicals that are usually present during pregnancy.
However, while Dr. Paulson has made it all sound quite simple, there are of course other issues to address.
First of all, some people believe that the process would be "unethical" if it posed a significant risk to either the fetus or the carrier, and whether or not a pregnancy would cause "psychological harm" at all.
Moreover, there are certain benefits to having a mother carry her own child - primarily that it strengthens the bond between parent and baby. However, parents of adopted children have been proven to love their families as much as those who are united by blood - and having the father handle the pregnancy does not seem to be all that different a situation.
Plus, the procedure has already proven to be successful in women who were assigned female at birth, with at least five babies having born in the last three years to women in Sweden who had received transplanted wombs.
Ultimately, there is still work to be done - but the technology is already available. Once enough ethical testing has taken place, and the safety and practicality of the procedure has been verified, really there's nothing stopping men from becoming pregnant.
