A 30-year-old trans woman becomes the first in the world to exclusively breastfeed her baby. The unidentified patient approached the doctors at Mt Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery. While her partner was expecting a baby, she did not wish to breastfeed. The patient instead decided to take on the role of being the primary food source for her infant. The unidentified trans woman neither gave birth to the baby, nor has undergone any gender-reassignment surgery like breast augmentation or vaginoplasty.

Doctor Tamar Reisman and nurse practitioner Zil Goldstein at Mt Sinai’s Centre for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, thought outside the box, and helped the woman to achieve lactation by using ‘off-label drugs’ – those which are developed for reasons other than their use.  The woman was put on a DIY hormone replacement therapy from three-and-a-half months before the birth using the drug domperidone, obtained from Canada. The drug is not FDA approved and banned in the USA. Combined with frequent breast pumping, she was successfully able to produce eight ounces of milk a day.

After the initial trial and recommended dosage, by her first follow-up, she was able to express droplets of milk. Slowly, the doctors increased her domperidone and hormone dosages along with her breast pumping sessions. By the end of the regimen, she was able to produce eight ounces of breastmilk daily and breastfed the baby for six weeks. She continued breastfeeding along with formula feeds.

Who is a transgender?

It is extremely important to know who a transgender is. People often confuse the term transgender as being gay, lesbian or bisexual. That is not true. It isn’t about surgery or sexual orientation or even how someone dresses. It is primarily how they feel from within. People get the feeling of being assigned in a wrong body than what they really are from within. When people make changes to match the way they feel inside, it’s called transitioning.

Despite the success by the two doctors, more research needs to be conducted to discover the optimal treatment regimen. But this success is huge for the transgender community and those within it who want to be able to breastfeed their children.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 14, 2018 02:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).