Transgender dad expecting his first biological baby after heartbreaking miscarriage

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by Emma Dodds |
Published on

Trystan Reese is a transgender man - and is expecting his first baby!

Trystan Reese, a transgender man from Oregon in the US, is pregnant with his first child.

Trystan, who was born female, and his partner Biff Chaplow are already parents to their two children, Hailey and Riley, who they adopted from Biff's sister in 2011.

Now, the two dads are overjoyed to be adding to their brood with their own biological child, a son, due next month.

The new arrival will be extra special as the couple heartbreakingly suffered a miscarriage last year.

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Biff and Trystan are expecting their own biological child, due July 2017 (Credit: Facebook/ Biff And I) ©Facebook/ Biff And I

Speaking to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning earlier today, Trystan explained that the couple were "thrust" into parenthood, as they adopted Biff's niece and nephew after their mother was deemed "unfit".

He said: "I really wanted to keep growing our family and adopting more kids was not financially, I think, something we could do. We can definitely afford another child; I don't know if we could afford another adoption. That legal process was very emotionally difficult for our family."

Trystan, who runs Facebook blog Biff and I, then explained how they came to the conclusion to try themselves: "We thought well, we actually have everything we need to grow our family on our own. I would need to stop taking testosterone and that's what I did. I went and talked to a medical team and made sure that was advisable."

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They are already adopted parents to Hailey and Riley (Credit: Facebook/ Biff And I) ©Facebook/ Biff And I

Trystan, who has been a man for over 10 years, went onto explain that it wasn't that out of the ordinary to them: "We know this seems unique to probably a lot of your viewers, but in our community we actually know a lot of transgender men like me, so men who have the ability to carry a child who have done so and done so very successfully.

"So while it's something that might be new to you, in our community it's actually not that groundbreaking or unique. The doctors said absolutely this is something you can do, there's no reason you can't have a happy and healthy pregnancy and it's been really wonderful so far."

The couple, who were appearing on the show via video link, then discussed their heartbreaking miscarriage, which happened last year: "It was very early on, luckily, so it's not been as difficult as it could have been if we were at a later point and more invested.

"It was rough, but we did make it through."

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They are excited to add to their brood (Credit: Facebook/ Biff And I) ©Facebook/ Biff And I

Phil then very carefully asked Biff whether he had to get round the fact that Trystan is still anatomically female, to which he said: "I think the truth is for all of us in relationships, when we meet somebody that we are attracted to, we are not attracted to every single part of them necessarily.

"So it's totally possible, for example, for me to really enjoy hairy chests and then to be with somebody who does not have a hairy chest. So that's how I saw it. That wasn't a negative thing, there was so much else about him that I loved and was attracted to, so that's kind of how I saw it and dealt with it."

That makes a lot of sense!

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Trystan explained on This Morning that the couple were "thrust" into parenthood (Credit: Facebook/ Biff And I) ©Facebook/ Biff And I

They finished off their interview by imploring people to try not to be narrow-minded about their situation: "I know it's not how most babies are carried and I know it's not how most men are, but I just invite people to start to expand a little bit their ideas of what it could mean to be a man, what it could mean to be a father and to know it's something we take very, very seriously."

N'aww, bless them!

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