Male Pregnancy

Male pregnancy, (abbrev. mpreg) a male carrying offspring, is almost a contradiction in terms - pregnancy is a nigh-universally female attribute. However, exceptions do exist.

In virtually all life on Earth that gives birth to live young, the female carries the embryos. Males (the sperm-generating half of heterogamous systems) very seldomly have the opportunity to host a zygote, not to mention bringing one to term. Rare exceptions include seahorses. A male seahorse takes and fertilises the ovum of the female, then bears the offspring.
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In humans

Male pregnancy in humans has been limited to the realms of speculation, science fiction and bad comedy as the phenomenon would be a biological impossibility under traditional circumstances. Due to advances in modern medicine the concept is generally considered possible, but both the risks and the chances of success are still at foolhardy levels. No known attempts at initiating a male pregnancy, much less carrying one out, have been made to date.

Since men lack a womb, alternative measures have to be made. Ectopic pregnancy is a given. Fertilization would be done in vitro by implantation into the abdominal cavity, and keeping the process going would require the father to take female hormones - blurring the line between the sexes, from some viewpoints. Delivery would be done by caesarean section.

Should treatment of transsexuals reach a point where post-operative ones can become fertile in their resulting sex, some of the resulting pregnancies might be considered male ones. In the meantime, a possible use for the procedure described above could help transsexuals bear children of their own.

Male pregnancy is likely to generate considerable ethical and some religious problems, but at the moment they are hardly relevant.

Mythology and fiction

Various mythologies have featured male characters birthing, but such events typically either take place in an entirely different fashion than an ordinary female pregnancy, such as Athena springing fully formed from Zeus's forehead, or when the character has been rendered female in some way, such as the shapeshifter Loki turning into a mare to distract a stallion and ending up giving birth to Sleipnir.

Two comedy films centered around the theme of such an event in humans, Rabbit Test (1978) and Junior (1994), have been released. The latter attempts to seem feasible; the former ignores the matter completely.

Enterprise, the latest incarnation of Star Trek, has also seen a male pregnancy (the first in the history of humanity - in the Star Trek timeline). Commander Trip Tucker, chief engineer of Enterprise, assists a Xyrillian ship with repairs, in humanity's first contact with the Xyrillians. Their engineer, Ah'len, spends a lot of time with Trip, both on and off duty. While in a holographic chamber they share an intimate moment; they immerse their hands into a box of granules which begin to glow, enabling them to read each other's minds. After helping the Xyrillians, Trip returns to Enterprise and the ships go their separate ways. A day later Trip notices an unusual growth on his left wrist, which turns out to be a nipple, while an embryo forms in his ribs. Trip is pregnant! Enterprise tracks down the Xyrillian ship and Ah'len, astounded that conception was possible with another species, has the embryo transferred to another host, as it is in its early stage. She also determines it is a girl. (Star Trek: Enterprise, Season 1, Episode 4: Unexpected (2001)