The journal Transgender Health recently published the first formal report of a transgender woman who was able to breastfeed her infant through induced lactation, using a combination of drugs (hormones that occur naturally during lactation—estradiol and progesterone—and the antinausea medication domperidone, which is licensed in Canada and Britain and is known to increase milk production) and chest stimulation using a breast pump. The patient purchased the antinausea medication in Canada since it’s banned in the United States. The case study authors—NP Zil Goldstein and Dr. Tamar Reisman—work at the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York.

During the 6 weeks of breastfeeding, which was the child’s only form of nutrition, a pediatrician reported that the “child’s growth, feeding, and bowel habits developed normally.”

Source: The New York Times