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.
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.
Trans grandma able to breastfeed baby with help of experimental hormone drugs https://t.co/d7wHD56HY5 pic.twitter.com/zrTRzbPgrE
— New York Post (@nypost) March 29, 2024
In the end, the man “tearfully reported” that breastfeeding his grandson “was a significant and emotional experience for [him] that felt very different from formula feeding [his] other children,” researchers wrote, according to the Daily Mail.
“[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.”
100% focus on what the adult male wants. Zero concern for the child.
"She (he) was able to feed her (his) four-month-old grandchild without any side effects to her (him)self"
Children as objects of adult validation.https://t.co/IMEpVn5z1T
— Katy Faust (@Advo_Katy) March 29, 2024
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.”
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.’”
There is no such thing as a "trans grandma" or a trans anything. These are insane and ivented terms we must mock and reject. And what is described is utterly repulsive. What could be more disgusting? https://t.co/lvUhdQ9WKc
— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) March 29, 2024
“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.
“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.
