History Main / MisterSeahorse

'''Amy:''' Yes it's... great. A great miracle.\\

--> ''"If the laws of nature allowed it, I would bear that man's children!"''

Has nothing to do with Youtube comedian [[https://m.youtube.com/user/mrpregnant/videos Mr. Pregnant]].

Has nothing to do with Youtube comedian [[https://m.youtube.com/user/mrpregnant/videos Mr. Pregnant]] .

** Nandan, a [[OddJobGods deity of]] trans women and transgenderism.

** Whether Birdo of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' is a trans woman or a cis woman [[ShesAManInJapan depends on which translation (or game) you go with]], but even the versions where Birdo is transgender have her shooting eggs from her mouth.

Has nothing to do with Youtube comedian [[https://m.youtube.com/user/mrpregnant/videos Mr. Pregnant]] or transgender pregnancy.

Has nothing to do with Youtube comedian [[https://m.youtube.com/user/mrpregnant/videos Mr. Pregnant]].

A male character gets pregnant through FunctionalMagic, [[MadScientist weird science]], [[GenderBender gender-bending]], BizarreAlienBiology, [[FreakyFridayFlip body swapping]], [[UnscaledMerfolk actually being a seahorse]], or ThePowerOfLove overcoming [[ArtisticLicenseBiology biology]] (read: bad writing). Usually played for laughs since PregnancyDoesNotWorkThatWay in real life, but it can be done seriously or even tragically, especially when it's from a FaceFullOfAlienWingWong.

Sometimes [=MPreg=] is explained by the action taking place in the future, the pregnancy being of [[MysticalPregnancy an explicitly supernatural nature]], or the man being [[BizarreAlienReproduction an alien]], especially if the aliens are hermaphroditic but [[OneGenderRace present as male to our eyes]]. Or if it's otherwise in canon. Regardless of how it comes about, though, fanfic with this often turns into {{Kidfic}}.

The trope name comes from the fact that male seahorses have an egg pouch. In it, they receive and fertilize the egg cells of their mates and carry them to term, a variation of how most other female fish lay their eggs in the water which are then externally fertilized by the male. Not quite the same as a mammalian pregnancy, but it certainly appears as such to human eyes, especially when the young leave the pouch.[[labelnote:note]]However, biologists have discovered that hormones similar to those found in pregnant female mammals are also active in the male seahorse, whose pouch lining becomes highly vasculatized to supply the embryos with oxygen and nutrients similar to a placenta, so for all intents and purposes it ''can'' actually be viewed as a pregnancy, so to speak.[[/labelnote]]

This is theoretically possible in real life. [[MadScientist A scientist]] was able to implant an embryo in the abdominal wall of a male baboon, and others report that it is indeed possible to get a man pregnant if the embryo is planted at the proper spot, but only if the man is pumped full of pregnancy hormones. The embryo [[TheMoreYouKnow can create its own placenta]].[[note]]http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-07/male-pregnancy-dangerous-proposition[[/note]] Unfortunately, the abdominal wall is not designed to detach from the placenta, resulting in [[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank massive bloody injury]]. There's also no obvious route of exit, and the baby would have to be removed via c-section. Male volunteers, not wanting to risk their lives on such a venture, have not been forthcoming.

Has nothing to do with Youtube comedian [[https://m.youtube.com/user/mrpregnant/videos Mr. Pregnant]] or transgender pregnancy

* [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks']] ''Literature/TheCulture'': An exceptionally icky example is present in ''Literature/{{Excession}}''. Given that people tend to live several centuries in the far future society portrayed, life-long monogamy is exceptionally unusual. A couple who plan to stick together that long can engage in a process that involves this trope in order to emphasize their co-dependence. [[spoiler:A couple can impregnate each other in turn to give birth at the same time]][[labelnote:explanation]]First the male impregnates the female, then before the fertilized egg leaves the ovary both initiate a GenderBender (this process is trivial but takes up to a year to complete), the egg is kept in stasis in the ovary as it changes into a testicle, the originally female partner impregnates the originally male partner, the second egg is kept in stasis as the originally female partner changes back and once both individuals are female their pregnancies proceed more or less naturally ending with both giving birth at the same time[[/labelnote]] in a process called Mutualling. In the specific example, [[spoiler:the woman goes AxeCrazy with a knife and kills her partner's fetus (also nearly killing her originally male partner) when the (then female) partner has an affair with another woman while pregnant. The partner changes back and leaves the woman while the woman goes nuts and stabilizes her pregnancy to remain pregnant for the rest of her life]]. This sequence of events so disturbs [[DeusEstMachina the AI of the colony ship]] they lived on at the time (which had watched and subtly intervened in the lives of millions of people who lived on it over its existence) that it resolves to fix their broken psyches as a personal preoccupation. The story ends "happily ever after" with [[spoiler:the couple reconciled before once again going their own ways, the woman giving birth and then being allowed to raise the child she'd gestated for the last 20 years, and the partner (now male) gone off to become (physically) a member of a [[StarfishAlien species]] of [[StrawFeminist Straw Men]].]]

Has nothing to do with Youtube comedian [[https://m.youtube.com/user/mrpregnant/videos Mr. Pregnant]]