Trans Dad Opens Up About His Pregnancy After a Miscarriage

Trystan Reese and Bill Chaplow are already parents to two children, Chaplow’s niece and nephew, Riley and Hailey, who they adopted after Chaplow’s sister had substance abuse problems. However, the couple wanted to try for a biological child, and so Reese, a trans father, became pregnant last year, only to suffer a miscarriage after 6 weeks. However, the couple is happy to announce that they are pregnant again.

Recently, Reese opened up about his experience as a transgender father and pregnancy, as he believes many people want to ask questions but are too afraid to ask.

He first discusses a myth surrounding transgender persons, such as how some people think that “trans people were born into the wrong bodies, and we really hate our bodies, and that’s why we need to transition.”

Rather, Reese explains, this was not the case for him: “For me, just transitioning normally – taking testosterone so that I have a beard and my voice is deep as its ever gonna get – and appear like a man… that’s enough for me. I never felt like I needed to change my body. And I for sure do not hate my body. I feel like my body is awesome, I feel like it’s a gift to have been born with the body that I did.”

“So if you can start to understand that, then it starts to make more sense that it would not seem totally bizarre for me to want to create and carry a baby.”

Reese and Chaplow recently shared their pregnancy story on a WNYC podcast, The Longest Shortest Time, and they said that they were surprised by how welcoming the medical community they are working with have been toward the two dads.

Reese explained that sometimes he can see how people have a hard time accepting him for who he is: “I can feel someone looking at my face and searching for the remnants of womanhood. They kind of squint their eyes a little bit and I can tell they’re trying to take away my beard, they’re trying to de-transition me in their heads.”

However, Reese noted that this was not the case for the doctor and staff that are helping them along on their pregnancy journey. They’ve received only positive care from the team.

The couple is due this summer and are expecting a boy.