Proof 'chestfeeding' is no replacement for breast? 37-year-old trans woman who ... trends now
A trans woman who tried 'chestfeeding' had to give up after a fortnight, according to a case report that challenges claims biological men can breastfeed successfully.
The unidentified 37-year-old, from the Netherlands, failed to produce enough liquid to feed her newborn. She was only making 7ml a day, 100 time less than what the NHS says is needed by that point.
Medics in Amsterdam, who treated her, documented how she wanted to breastfeed in tandem with her partner to help with 'bonding' and share the workload.
The trans woman – who froze her sperm before transitioning – conceived her child with her partner, a biological female, via IVF in 2020 using her own sperm.
Despite months of preparation, she had to stop the 'exhausting' process two weeks after her child was born due to the low amount of milk produced.
The case involved a 37-year-old trans woman , who was born male but identifies as a woman, who wanted to breastfeed her child to help with 'bonding' (shutterstock)
But the researchers still said 'chestfeeding' – a controversial gender-neutral term for breastfeeding – was still 'valuable' for their patient. Sharing the trans woman's case, they also said breastfeeding has 'outgrown' its traditional female roots.
Trans women breastfeeding is a controversial topic.
Last month an NHS trust was forced to defend itself after stating 'human milk' from trans women is as good for babies as that produced by biological women.
And last year a British trans woman sparked outrage after sharing a photo of her breastfeeding her child on a bus.
Induced lactation in trans women is not only controversial in itself.
Experts are also concerned by how little we know of the long-term impacts of the process on children, given how some of the medications and hormones taken by trans women to induce lactation can leak into milk produced.
Writing in the International Breastfeeding Journal, the Dutch researchers said there was a 'rising demand' for chestfeeding among trans women.
They detailed the case of their 37-year-old patient who was being treated for gender dysphoria in Amsterdam.
The trans women in question had undergone hormone therapy for 13 years and had a vaginoplasty, the removal of male genitalia and creation of an artificial neo-vagina.
Doctors prescribed her hormones and a galactagogue, a substance which induces lactation, for six months to help her lactate.
She also used a breast pump to physically prepare her body for milk extraction.
This process is known as the known as the Newman-Goldfarb protocol, and is designed to mimic the changes a woman's body undergoes during pregnancy to prepare her for breastfeeding.
Once the baby was born, the medics reported the trans woman had some initial success in chestfeeding, giving her a 'positive experience'.
'Our patient started lactating and although the production of milk was low, it was sufficient for supplementary feeding and a positive experience for our patient,' they wrote.
However, she was forced to stop after just two weeks, describing the process of pumping for milk as 'exhausting'.
The medics also said the infant had both suckling problems due to a developmental issue, and the trans woman was producing a low amount of milk.
At her peak, she produced just 7ml of milk per day, about 1 per cent of what a
