Researchers at Duke University reportedly used experimental hormone drugs to make a 50-year-old man — who pretends to be a woman — lactate so he could breastfeed his grandchild, the Daily Mail reported.
The unidentified man was “lactating spontaneously” and able to produce up to 30 milliliters of milk at a time after a four-week course of hormone treatments, researchers wrote in the Breastfeeding Medicine journal, published on March 27. The man then fed his four-month-old grandchild without any side effects to himself — the study did not mention potential health risks to the baby, according to the report.
Researchers said the motivation was to create a “bond from breastfeeding that [he] had not been able to experience with [his] own five children” after the man reached out to the North Carolina-based university in 2022.
Researchers noted that scientists around the world have helped four other men — who say they are women — lactate for breastfeeding. Some of the experiments used a drug that can potentially cause irregular heartbeat and other side effects in infants. The Duke University experiment used different protocols than the four previous studies because that drug is not approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), researchers wrote.
“[He] states that she has a special bond with this baby, for which [he] is grateful,” they reportedly wrote. “[He] regrets that [he] had not known about the possibility sooner and wished that other transgender women could know that breastfeeding a baby can be a reality.”
Researchers reportedly added that “conversations with the subject before, during, and after treatment revealed important insights for the ongoing discussions about the role of lactation induction and breastfeeding in gender-affirming care,” according to the report.
Heather Welford from With Women, a group of midwives and breastfeeding experts, told the outlet that the study is “disturbing.”
“Most people would find the idea absolutely shocking,” Welford said. “Babies come into this world ready to continue their relationship with their mother, and breastfeeding helps with this. Disrupting this with attempts at breastfeeding by anyone else is frankly disturbing.”
Executive Director of Sex Matters Maya Forstater noted that “babies cannot consent to being patients in a study which sets aside biological reality to define treatment protocols relating to so-called ‘gender medicine.’”
“Men should not be permitted, still less supported, to get between babies and their mothers or to use babies as props to validate their beliefs that they are women,” Forstater told the outlet.
The study comes less than a year after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published materials instructing transgender and non-binary people on how to “chestfeed” their infants.
“Some transgender parents who have had breast/top surgery may wish to breastfeed, or chestfeed (a term used by some transgender and non-binary parents), their infants,” the CDC’s website said.
“Healthcare providers working with these families should be familiar with medical, emotional, and social aspects of gender transitions to provide optimal family-centered care and meet the nutritional needs of the infant,” the CDC added.