Man, 21, becomes first in UK to give birth to child
10 Jul 2017
A 21-year-old man has become the first in Britain to give birth after he put his sex transition on hold to get pregnant by a sperm donor.
Hayden Cross, who made headlines around the world earlier this year when he announced he was pregnant by a sperm donor, has given birth to a girl.
Cross, 21, and his partner Scott Parker, 23, were both born women, but chose to have children before full surgery made it impossible.
In April Parker gave birth to his daughter Sara who was conceived following a drunken one-night stand with a friend in August last year.
And last month Cross delivered his daughter Trinity-Leigh via Caesarean section, after he found a sperm donor on Facebook and inseminated himself. The girl was born on 16 June at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.
The pair is now planning to return to gender reassignment surgery as quickly as possible.
Cross told The Sun that daughter Trinity-Leigh is his "angel".
He had been living legally as a man for three years and was already part-way through hormone treatment to transform from a woman to a man. But the full transition was paused after the UK's state- funded National Health Service (NHS) refused to carry out a £4,000 process to freeze his eggs - which he hoped would enable him to have children in the future.
The former supermarket worker instead found a sperm donor via Facebook and became successfully pregnant.
"She's perfect in every way ... she is so good. I'm so lucky," Cross was quoted as saying.
The proud father was born a girl named Paige, 21 years ago.
Parker gave birth seven weeks before Cross. He had been living as a man for two years but put his transition on hold to have Sara.
Cross, from Gloucester, had said earlier, "I faced the prospect of not becoming the man I'm supposed to be, physically, or a dad. So I didn't feel like I had any choice but to have a baby now then get back to transitioning.
"In September I got pregnant by a sperm donation. I found the donor on the internet. I looked on Facebook for a group and found one - it's been shut down now. I didn't have to pay," Cross had said.
Cross said he does not know the name of the biological father.
Cross used to work for Asda and in a clothes shop, and aims to find a job once the baby is aged one.
Gender transition treatment costs the NHS on average £29,000 per patient.
Thomas Beatie became the first man to give birth in the US in 2008. Born a woman, he had a partial sex change but kept his womb and was able to conceive.
