>>> Source: Sunday Herald
>>> Author: Sarah-Kate Templeton
>>> URL: http://www.sundayherald.com/32703
>>> Date: Apr. 5, 2003
>>> Location: UK
>>> Item: News
>>> Title: Transsexuals get chance to become father and mother

Men planning sex change operations are being invited to freeze their
sperm -- allowing them to become both father and mother of their child.

The doctor in charge of one fertility clinic which recently obtained
ethical approval to store sperm of men undergoing sex changes says
patients should routinely be given this option so that they can still
father children once they become women.

The head of another clinic says transsexuals should be treated in the
same way as cancer patients, who risk becoming sterile after a course of
chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Professor Gedis Grudzinskas, director of the Bridge Centre, a London
fertility clinic, said: 'I interpret this situation as a man trying to
maintain his fertility when undergoing treatment that would disrupt his
fertility, just like treatment for testicular cancer. This allows
transsexuals to be genetic parents.'

Professor Paul De Sutter, who runs the infertility centre at Ghent
University Hospital in Belgium -- which has just been granted permission
to store the sperm of men awaiting sex change operations -- says
transsexuals should routinely be offered the chance to preserve their
ability to procreate.

In a letter to the online medical journal RBMonline, he said: 'It may
even be our duty as healthcare professionals to help transsexual people
fulfil their wish for children.'

De Sutter has carried out a survey of around 120 trans sexuals'
attitudes to sperm freezing. He found that 75% of those questioned were
in favour of men being given the option and 90% of those in favour would
have stored their sperm if they had been given the chance.

De Sutter says this study, which will be published shortly, shows that
men undergoing sex changes should automatically be given the choice of
storing their sperm.

'Around half of male-to-female transsexuals are attracted to women and
engage in a 'lesbian' relationship after their transition. These couples
may wish for a child and, as in every lesbian couple, inseminations by
donor sperm would be the preferred option. In this particular case,
frozen sperm from the transsexual partner could be used to inseminate
her partner, leading to a 100% genetically related child.

'In other circumstances, we would need a surrogate mother.' He added:
'These men want to preserve their ability to procreate.

De Sutter acknowledges that the transsexuals would be the father as well
as the mother of the resulting child but argues that this would also be
the case for those who had children prior to the sex change.

But the medical profession is divided on the issue. Dr Mark Hamilton, a
consultant gynaecologist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, points out that
these children would have a woman entered as the father on their birth
certificate.

'My immediate reaction would be one of caution. On the birth certificate
the father would be a woman. The father will be this female figure.'

Hamilton, who treats transsexuals, is also concerned that a man's desire
to store sperm suggests that he is not convinced about his sexuality.

The treatment is legal in this country but the agency that regulates
fertility treatment, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
(HFEA), does not know whether a child has yet been conceived this way.

An HFEA spokeswoman said: 'There would be evidence that fertility could
be impaired and, therefore, sperm could be stored. It would be
considered a protection of their fertility.

'Like all couples they would then undergo a 'welfare of the child'
assessment to decide whether they could use the sperm.'

Kate's story

Kate, a 37-year-old transsexual from the Netherlands, had her sperm
frozen before having a sex change operation two years ago. Now a woman,
Kate is glad that she did because she would like to have children in the
future.

The scientist, who works for a Dutch university, said: 'I see this as
being similar to people who store sperm because they need a treatment
which can harm their fertility.

'When I stored my sperm I was undecided. Now I would like children.'

Kate does not believe that, if she were to father a child and become the
child's mother, her offspring would be psychologically damaged.

'People always say 'the child will be messed up', but they don't get
messed up.

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