• Question: Do you think that a man could become pregnant or that a woman could create sperm?

    Asked by AnimalLover to Stéphane on 12 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Stéphane Berneau

      Stéphane Berneau answered on 12 Mar 2018:

      In Human, this is not possible. Men do not have the organ, uterus, adapted to support a pregnancy. (There is a movie, called “Junior”, where Arnold Schwarzenegger become pregnant but it is a total fiction, of course). Woman (female sex assigned at birth) cannot produce sperm. The presence of testosterone early on in the development would have lead to be born male (apart from some specific case).

      In the animal kingdom, there are few species that can change sex. They have an organ called ovotestis (therefore, they can produce oocyte and sperm, at different times in life).
      One of the common examples is the clownfish who will change sex by social interactions.

      Technically, Marlin in “Finding Nemo” should have changed sex and become a dominant female but it is a Disney movie.
      If you have anymore questions, do not hesitate.

Comments

  • Photo: Gemma

    Gemma commented on :

    I think it might be potentially possible to make sperm cells from a woman. I think if we could figure out how to coax general stem cells from a woman (induced pluripotent stem cells) into spermatogonial stem cells, we could then either implant these into a man in order to produce sperm or try to differentiate the spermatogonial stem cells into sperm in a dish before using them for artificial insemination or IVF.
    Spermatogonial stem cell transplants have been done to cure male infertility in mice. So, that bit is technically possible (at least in mice). The tricky bit is therefore whether we can reprogramme a general stem cell (pluripotent stem cell) from a woman into a spermatogonial stem cell.
    There is a difference between what is technically possible, what is reliably safe, what is ethical, and what will be allowed by law. It would be up to society to decide if two women should be able to have a biological baby together if the technology was available to do so and the procedure was reliably safe.
    Sex is not as straightforward binary thing in biology though as we humans tend to believe. There are animals that are hermaphrodite (I used to work on one, a nematode worm that makes eggs and sperm) and animals that change sex as Stephane mentions. Also, there are genetic conditions that cause humans to be born with neither, or both, male and female reproductive parts (usually not fully developed though, so usually they are infertile: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/disorders-sex-development/). Things are never black or white with biology, that’s why it’s so interesting, and also why it’s important to be open to people’s differences.

    • Photo: Stéphane

      Stéphane commented on :

      I really went soft on the complexity of gender, sex and development anomalies … We had quite a good talk with “AnimalLover” prior to the question.
      I don’t think there is any aim to generate sperm from stem cells (karyotyped female) for a heterosexual couple… because the “father” would not be the biological one (not transmitting any genes).
      Moreover, using “female” stem cells, there will be only one possibility: getting a baby girl (no issue with girls, at all).