Pregnant Man's ultrasound on Oprah ::GenQ

We first came across pregnant man Thomas Beatie last week when the media learned of his situation and his story fascinated the world.

It’s not surprising that given the circumstance, TV stalwart Oprah Winfrey would want to conduct an interview with Mr Beatie and his wife regarding the pregnancy.

As Mr Beatie and his wife appeared on Oprah this morning, his obstetrician, Dr Kimberly James gave the first medical confirmation of the pregnancy, proclaiming it “normal” and that the baby is healthy. She said Mr Beatie stopped taking testosterone two years ago and his levels of the hormone were normal.

Mr Beatie's wife Nancy said she inseminated him with a syringe using sperm purchased from a bank. The couple said they had been turned down by a number of other doctors before Dr James agreed to take him as a patient.

Mr Beatie told Oprah of his longing to have a child and considered his situation a miracle.
"It's not a male or female desire to have a child. It's a human desire," dad-to-be said.

"I have a very stable male identity."

Pregnancy neither defined him nor made him feel feminine, he said.

Nancy, to whom he has been married for five years and who has two grown daughters from a previous marriage, said the couple's roles would not change once the baby was born.

"He's going to be the father and I'm going to be the mother," she said. Their marriage is legal and he is recognised under state law as a man.

During the show, the couple was shown on video provided by People magazine, displaying the room that will be the baby's nursery. Mr Beatie said the little girl was going to be "daddy's little princess".

The video also showed the couple in their hometown of Oregon, where Thomas underwent an ultrasound showing the baby in his womb.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe she's inside me," Mr Beatie said while watching the ultrasound image. "We see her as our little miracle."

The couple, who run a small business in Bend, said they decided to go public with the pregnancy because they wanted to control the way the news got out.

Mr Beatie is working on a book about his childhood, his mother's suicide and his life growing in Hawaii where, as a girl, he was a teen beauty pageant contestant and earned a martial arts black belt.

Oprah called the development "a new definition of what diversity means for everybody."