Basic Trope: Some way, somehow, a male gets pregnant.
- Straight: Bob is pregnant as a result of questionable experiments, Bizarre Alien Biology, Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong, Homosexual Reproduction, Functional Magic, or any combination of the above. Usually results in a But I Can't Be Pregnant!
- Exaggerated:
- Bob goes through it all: the Morning Sickness, the mood swings, the Wacky Cravings, the Balloon Belly (complete with stretch marks!), the back pain, and what seems like the Longest Pregnancy Ever. And don't forget the "natural" Screaming Birth.
- Bob is a male car who gets pregnant and goes through it all. Despite being a sportscar, he starts craving diesel fuel, his body gets warped and out of shape due to the Balloon Belly, he gets pain whenever Alice drives him, and this goes on for a year until he starts screaming as not only his exhaust gets warped, but he gives birth to a baby sportscar.
- Bob the sportscar lays an egg with the same symptoms.
- Downplayed:
- Bob gets a Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong, so he suffers from some of the typical pregnancy symptoms (weight gain, increased appetite), but not others (morning sickness, mood swings). Overall though, it's more like parasitism than an actual pregnancy.
- Bob is undergoing "sympathetic pregnancy", due to Alice's pregnancy pheromones or other physiological cues. He shows symptoms of pregnancy, but is not actually pregnant.
- Alice shapeshifts into a man while pregnant, resulting in her appearing as a man with a visible bump.
- Logical Extreme: Bob is a proud mother of dozens of children.
- Justified:
- Bob is an alien, a fully-functional hermaphrodite, or of some other male pregnancy-compatible type of being, and is naturally capable of getting pregnant and carrying babies.
- Bob is transgender and still has a womb.
- The alien being who "impregnated" him reproduces by parasitically attaching its eggs to a random host.
- Bob is a literal Mr. Seahorse.
- Bob is able to shift his form to have a female reproductive system.
- Inverted:
- Alice is impregnated by another woman.
- Alice is part of a species or universe where the males get pregnant (like a seahorse, for example) yet somehow, she ends up getting pregnant.
- Subverted:
- Bob chalks up his nausea and slightly swollen belly to last night's taco binge.
- Bob is initially mistaken as a case of this, but then it turns out to just be that Bob is a woman; she just looks masculine.
- Bob's pregnancy ends up getting her exposed as a Sweet Polly Oliver.
- Double Subverted:
- But goes to the doctor when he doesn't get better, only to find that he's not only pregnant, but 3 months along.
- Bob is mistaken for being just a woman that looks masculine due to the fact that he's pregnant, but he actually is male.
- Parodied:
- A male seahorse writes a fanfiction about a female seahorse that somehow ends up pregnant.note
- The minute Bob becomes pregnant, he turns into an Uke/Camp Gay that looks and acts like he was created by the mind of a really bad fanfic writer. After giving birth, though, he returns back to his old self and goes on to ask what happened the last nine months.
- Zig Zagged:
- Some men (often Uke archetypes) are capable of becoming pregnant, others are not.
- Alice, a transgender woman, somehow becomes pregnant despite not having a uterus or ovaries.
- Averted: Nothing related to male pregnancy is mentioned.
- Enforced:
- A Yaoi Fangirl writes Fanfiction for her favorite yaoi couple, because Babies Make Everything Better, and why shouldn't her favorite yaoi couple get to have blissful Babies Ever After?
- "We need to show some weird scientific impossibilities in this sci-fi series, and I think one good choice would be to show a male character somehow getting pregnant."
- Bob's actress is pregnant and the producers decided to Throw It In!.
- Lampshaded: "Hey, Bob! What's with the pickles and ice cream? You pregnant?"
- Invoked: Andy and Bob seek out a wizard, and are given a potion that will allow Bob to carry Andy's child.
- Exploited:
- Emperor Evulz, having recently found out about Bob's condition, threatens to harm him if Alice doesn't surrender.
- Since whatever child Bob gives birth to is technically not "of woman born", that child can be used to break a No Man of Woman Born clause.
- Defied:
- Bob is somehow capable of bearing children, and he and Andy know this. They are Genre Savvy enough to know that male pregnancy could be problematic (see "Deconstructed"), so they use condoms and spermicide for Bob's safety. If they decide later that they want a child, they will see about adopting one.
- Or, unable to bear children, they enlist the help of the local Mad Scientist to genetically engineer a child from their genes, or get the assistance of a doctor and a willing female friend or paid surrogate.
- Bob and Andy decide to adopt a kid instead of giving birth to one.
- Discussed:Bob: But I Can't Be Pregnant! [Beat] Do I really need to tell you why not?
- Conversed:Alice: I don't get this whole MPREG genre, if they want a baby, why can't they adopt it or something?
Carl: Maybe the author likes the idea of malekind learning of the hardships of female reproduction. - Implied:
- A month after having a one-night stand with a mysterious man, Bob begins to suffer from mild nausea and occasional mood swings. Not long after, Bob is Put on a Bus. We don't see him again until a year later carrying a baby in his arms and a few extra pounds around his midsection.
- Bob is asked if he is pregnant and denies it. The fact that he does not consider the very idea of being pregnant ridiculous, implies that men do in fact get pregnant in the series.
- Bob and Andy are a couple of men who have a child who looks like they could plausibly be their biological offspring (and there also doesn't appear to any women who could've been their surrogate mother).
- Deconstructed: The pregnancy is unexpected, unplanned, and unwanted. The male body is not designed to carry a fetus or give birth, and the story shows the whys and hows. The pregnancy is dangerous, and the birth is a huge risk of Death by Childbirth.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob's physiology (either naturally or because of Applied Phlebotinum) averts these problems: apparently, Bob has a fully-functional uterus in there somewhere, and his pelvis will somehow accommodate the birth (or he'll just have a C-section). Bob eventually accepts his role as a parent... after the initial shock wears off.
- The medical system in this series does account for the possibility of men being pregnant and having kids and is able to assist with Bob's situation.
- Plotted A Good Waste: The creators decide to pair hermaphrodite alien Bob up with Andy and make the former pregnant just to excite the Yaoi Fangirls. To ramp up the drama and avoid Squicking out the other viewers, the creators end up giving Bob a Convenient Miscarriage.
- Played for Laughs: Bob has mood swings faster than you can say MPREG, craves foods that would make any other guy gag, and spends his nights awake trying to get the baby to stop kicking. The entire ordeal ends with the most hilarious Screaming Birth ever.
- Played for Drama:
- Bob's pregnancy is difficult, he and Andy face scorn from others, the pregnancy was completely unplanned (and possibly unwanted), and this all takes a toll on Andy and Bob's relationship not to mention other aspects of life such as social status and connections to friends and relatives.
- The pregnancy was unwanted, but Bob, remembering he was born from an unwanted pregnancy as well, decides to go along with it despite the risks because he was given this much as well.
- An ultrasound or blood test reveals something wrong with the baby.
- Bob miscarries as the result of Domestic Abuse committed by his abuser, Andy.
- Bob is shunned and ridiculed by the rest of the town due to the odd situation.
- Bob is forced to carry the baby against his will.
- Child by Rape.
- Death by Childbirth, or other complications.
- Bob is a Breeding Slave and is forced to carry babies, whether to give birth to heirs or genetically perfect/strong children by some malevolent force.
