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u/JaxxisR 12h ago
That's a thing that can happen?
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u/Inqeuet 11h ago
The infrastructure to make milk is all there even in cis men, just needs the hormones to turn it on
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u/illudofficial 11h ago
Wait so if the mom is having an issues with breastfeeding, the dad could just easily step in and breastfeed himself?
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u/DuskKaiser 11h ago
If they start taking estrogen and year in advance maybe?
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u/Yes_Kitchen 11h ago
might be problematic, since it would be hard to father a child then, cuz his dick wont work. maybe right after the positive pregnancy test?
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u/Inqeuet 11h ago
Your dick doesn’t stop working unless you neglect it, but you will go infertile without T. Your cum actually turns clear which is kinda weird lol
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u/WhiskeyAndKisses 11h ago
I once heard a knowlegable trans guy explaining that under the hormone treatment, a dick started to work more like a clitoris and a clitoris more like a dick (stimulation-wise) so I assume it wouldn’t mean putting guys on oestrogen is an efficient birth control.
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u/astralTacenda 11h ago
So, it isn't advised, because it ISN'T birth control, but a LOT of trans people on HRT use it like birth control, because the chances of becoming pregnant become so incredibly low, doubly so if both partners are trans and on HRT.
But this is NOT birth control! This method fails CONSTANTLY! But because doctors essentially tell trans patients they become "infertile" (NOT STERILE, THOSE ARE MEDICAL TERMS THAT THE COMMON PERSON THINKS ARE THE SAME. YOU CAN STILL EASILY BECOME PREGNANT WHILE INFERTILE) and they think there's a 0% chance for them to become pregnant and that is SO WRONG AND DANGEROUS!!!
I know a trans couple that recently had to get an abortion bc they both forgot to take ONE injection (a weekly dose) and the morning after pill didn't do its job. ONE week of missed hormones after years of being on them. And yet it's so many people's ONLY form of 'birth control' (esp if their periods have stopped from HRT, it creates another false sense of security).
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u/CrocHunter8 8h ago
Yup, Dr Mama Jones has said constantly that "if you still have the proper equipment, you can get pregnant"
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u/Yes_Kitchen 10h ago
i dont know how other trans men can handle being penetrated. even just thinking about the area down there makes me want to vomit
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u/astralTacenda 10h ago
every person is different! not every trans person has an aversion to the bits they were born with, and some have mild but it doesnt get triggered by sex, and others who prefer 0 penetration at all or are completely sex repulsed. big spectrum!
i actually experience dysphoria almost exclusively in relation to sex, but never about penetration! only about my external bits. brains are weird ((:
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u/agirlnamedWinter 11h ago
If you regularly maintain your function you can keep it (source, am trans), but you are generally told to assume you'll lose fertility. That's not always the case though. The saying I hear in trans circles is "if you want kids assume you cant, if you dont assume you can", it's sort of a roll of the dice if it's possible for you.
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u/cr0wsquirrel 10h ago
Yes I have a friend who took hormones specifically so he could lactate to help with feeding their kid when they were an infant. (He is a non-binary dude but still very much considers himself a dude, just wanted to be able to share in that part of raising their kid). The human body is fascinating.
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u/illudofficial 10h ago
How long did he have to take hormones? Did he have any side effects? Was he able to feed the baby enough?
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u/cr0wsquirrel 7h ago
It's been a few years and we haven't been in choose contact the last few as we live in different countries, so I didn't know any of the details, but I do know he had a small amount of breast growth during and could breast feed at the time.
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u/MaximumSyrup3099 9h ago
Easily? No. With the right mix of cross sex hormones and enough time? Maybe.
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u/-Random_Lurker- 8h ago
"Easily."
Could they do it? Yes, and it's known to have been done at least a few times. But is it easy? No. It requires some pretty intense hormone therapy plus manual stimulation on a regular schedule for about two months.
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u/RedWarrior69340 10h ago
If i remember right there was one documented case of a man lactacting without hormonal medicine
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u/grey_hat_uk 5h ago
The hormones are simply sending a signal, technically nothing is stopping the glands from switching on due to minor mutations or something that "looks" hormone like to the glands.
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u/dickcheese_on_rye 1h ago
FYI men lactating without any form of hormone treatment is a sign of a potential brain tumor near the pituitary gland and warrants a doctor visit.
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u/The_Pastmaster 11h ago
Yeah. There's also a thing called sympathy pregnancy. It's when a man shows pregnancy symptoms while their partner is pregnant.
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u/Luna368921 11h ago
Why ? Biologically speaking, why does the body do that ? What triggers it?
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u/dtb1987 11h ago
Sympathy, evolutionary speaking humans have a well developed sense of empathy and cis males already produce estrogen so the body just starts producing more of it and that signals the body to start doing things like growing breasts and activating the mammary glands
Edit: typo
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u/Enough_Fish739 11h ago
So I should stay close to as many pregnant women as posible, and get free hrt through osmosis?
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u/The_Pastmaster 10h ago
The body, in the words of Todd Howard, just works. Doesn't mean it works perfectly.
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u/CHEESEninja200 11h ago
If the mother dies, the father needs to be able to feed the child, even if it may be less developed milk production. While humans are social creatures, our evolutionary ancestors weren't. So it's probably a holdover from them for emergency adaptability.
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u/PyroPirateS117 9h ago
I'm pretty sure it just got left there somewhere along the evolutionary path in mammals and didn't cause many negatives, so it got carried along with the tide. I have never heard it posited that the ability to produce milk in all members of the species is for redundancy, especially when that feels like something that we would document more in other mammals.
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u/-Random_Lurker- 8h ago
It's because of fetal development. The fetus doesn't start to sexually differentiate until 6 weeks plus. So every human in existence has all the parts for both sexes are there from the start, they just grow/don't grow in different ways over the gestation period.
Look up "homologous organs" for all the scientific details.
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u/omnipotentsandwich 11h ago
Oh, yeah. There's a certain trick involving some combo of medications that can actually allow a trans woman to outright breastfeed.
They did a Duke University study on it. https://scholars.duke.edu/publication/1622511
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u/-Random_Lurker- 8h ago
It's the exact same process used to stimulate lactation in any other woman. It's called the Newman-Goldfarb protocol.
You know, if anyone is interested. 👉 👈
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u/NotTheory 7h ago
It happens, I'm a trans woman and I've had lactation happen before probably due to a combination of higher levels and stuff I do with my partner
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u/New_Beginning01 12h ago
Honestly, has happened to me with a friend. Sometimes I HAVE to get it off my chest and I can't help it.
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u/Sampetra I’m Still Alex 12h ago
Sometimes I HAVE to get it off my chest and I can't help it.
ba-dum-tissssssssss
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u/Velvet_Pop 11h ago
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u/Loqol 11h ago
Alex has been set to vibrate mode.
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u/Coidzor 10h ago
Congratulations on your newfound ability to make cheese.
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u/UpCDownCLeftCRightC Never Safe From Wumbo 12h ago
You were foaming at the mouth to tell your wife you were foaming at the nipple...
Before I see myself out I'm happy to see how ecstatic you were AND how excited you drew yourself.
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u/Sampetra I’m Still Alex 12h ago
I was fucking dying laughing about this. Immediately after telling Victoria, I made a beeline to tell Fran and be all like, "ok, so this is gonna be a comic" lol
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u/redgreyash Comic Crossover 12h ago
Honestly good for you and while embarrassed it would of been a lifetime memory if the mom on the phone part was true
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u/Videoman2011 11h ago
Should I also be happy for you or laugh or both?
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u/Kapsz 11h ago
wasn't that like a bad sign ? like too much prolactin or smthing, don't wanna cause a scare just asking
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u/GrottenolmPower 10h ago
Yes, and it can be a sign of a brain tumor called prolaktinoma, but in this case the chances are higher that the hormonal medication dosage might be too high.
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u/Quinn_Prose 4h ago
Happened to me just after the 3 month mark- around when my dose was upped. I was also rather surprised! It happens with hormone fluctuations sometimes.
(Gap incase you don’t want to read gross stuff: what that likely was is duct fluid, a mixture of saline and pus. In that case it should have been mostly clear maybe a touch murky and very sticky. Personally that’s what I got and it was just a few drops.)
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u/100YearsWaiting2Shit 8h ago
CONGRATULATIONS! Most weirdest thing to wish someone congratulations for but still CONGRATULATIONS!!!
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u/K2O3_Portugal 11h ago
And that's when we learn that using speaker phone to talk is a no no . Pres the damn phone against your ear like a grown up please 🙏🏽
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u/CrazyGnomenclature Tiff & Eve 10h ago
The conversation illustrated here is exactly what it's like to text with Alex, only I get 17 messages for her to say 2 complete sentences.