Transgender people see themselves as aligned with cancer patients who also face infertility when undergoing treatment. Egg freezing was once considered experimental, but that changed in 2012 when it was reclassified as an elective procedure, opening the door for more use. That prompted both cancer patients and transgender people to think about how to prove to insurance companies that fertility preservation is part of medically necessary treatments that need coverage.

“So, your parent is transgender. What’s that like?” Does this question sound familiar? As people with transgender parents, we often feel quite alone in our experience. When (and if) we explain that we have a trans parent, we often find most people have never met anyone else with a transgender parent. COLAGE is a great resource for People with Trans Parents!

Although when coming out there may be an initial strain on the family, studies have shown that having a parent come out and transition can actually strengthen the relationships in a family over time. Living your authentic truth not only frees you from the constraints of a closeted life but it also encourages your children to be more open-minded about diversity and shows them what it means to be honest about who you are even in difficult circumstances.

Although many options are available, the majority of trans youth do not end up preserving their fertility. We simply don’t know enough yet about whether these youth will have regrets about their decision, but the authors of this 2017 study draw parallels to the millions of adults who experience infertility and identify that struggles with fertility cause multiple negative psychosocial impacts.

On average, transgender women want to become parents at the same rates of other LGBTQ+ people, yet there are still so many questions about trans fertility. While we keep pushing for more data and research, it’s important to continue to learn, educate, and work together; helping us get closer to building happy, thriving families.

Preparing for pregnancy as a non-binary person will take a bit of an extra effort, but many have found that if done in a thoughtful, mindful, sustainable way. In a way that's tailored to the individual identity and experience of the pregnant person, many have found that it can be an extra effort well beyond worth taking.

For trans people, advocating for oneself within medical systems is hard. Here’s a concrete tool to make things a little easier when you have to work with providers who miss the mark.

Countering many myths about egg health and testosterone, this 2019 Boston IVF study found that egg quality and quantity (in addition to other variables around pregnancy and egg harvesting) were the same between transgender men and cisgender women.

When it comes to fertility and transgender women, there are often more questions than answers. But thanks to a 2019 study, we now know the answer to a question we hadn’t thought to ask:

Before taking hormones, do transgender women have the same fertility options as cisgender men?

In short, the answer is either maybe or no.