Andrea Askowitz is pregnant—and she’s grumpy. In My Miserable Lonely Lesbian Pregnancy (Cleis: May 1, 2008) she shares her cantankerous journey to parenthood as a single mom, complete with weight gain, leg cramps, hormone-induced depression, and well-intentioned friends who never quite do the right thing.
Thomas Beatie caused a minor sensation several weeks ago when he came out as a pregnant transgender man. I offered my own opinion about him, which boils down to “a loving family is all that matters.” Annalee Newitz at AlterNet, however, reminded us that Beatie is not the first man to get pregnant. She knows
Louise Sloan’s new book, Knock Yourself Up: No Man? No Problem: A Tell-All Guide to Becoming a Single Mom (Avery: 2007), is something of a novelty. It is perhaps the only parenting book by an out lesbian mom that is directed at a mixed audience, lesbian and not. While some books about single motherhood are
A few items of note: Drink milk. Overall, children in the U.S. are not consuming the recommended amount of dairy products, and the ones they do consume are too high in fat. Eat fish. New recommendations from 14 physicians and a number of leading professional and governmental groups say pregnant and breast-feeding women should eat
And I thought finding a sperm donor through a search engine was pretty high-tech: Scientists at the University of Tokyo are building a “womb-on-a-chip” to increase the success of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The two-by-one-half millimeter device is similar to a computer chip, but its microscopic channels conduct fluids, not electricity. The ultimate goal is
The only time in my life I was on birth control, it was in order to have a child. Specifically, it was to get my partner pregnant, using my egg. The birth control pills were to synch my cycle with hers so the doctors could do their reproductive magic. I get almost as worked up
Tomorrow, March 20, is Back Up Your Birth Control Day, and organizers are encouraging people to blog about it. A coalition of more than 100 women’s health and medical organizations established the event as part of an ongoing campaign “to help make emergency contraception (EC) more effective by making sure women know about it —
The first episode of Work Out, Season Two, starring lesbian fitness trainer Jackie Warner, is available now—two days before premiering on television—for free download on iTunes. (Thanks to After Ellen for the tip.) I’m a fan of the show, despite its editing for melodrama. Jackie is a successful woman with a good business sense as
“Tubs of ice cream help women make babies” proclaims an article about new fertility research. I can hear the cries of joy from those of you trying to conceive. Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health found that a low-fat dairy diet can cause infertility by preventing ovulation. Women trying to conceive should consider
The venerable paper had a number of articles of interest yesterday: “With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar“: This year’s Newbery Medal-winning book, The Higher Power of Lucky, contains the word “scrotum” in it. It’s in reference to a dog who gets bitten on that rather tender piece of his anatomy, but some parents
