Ruben Noe Coronado, a 26 year old transsexual man from Spain, and his partner Esperanza Ruiz are to undertake a second round of IVF (in vitro fertilisation) treatment. Mr Coronado recently miscarried in the 18th week of pregnancy and lost the twins he was carrying.
Mr Coronado, born Estefania Coronado Jimenez, has been living as a man since the age of 18 when he decided to undergo gender reassignment before having his breasts surgically removed. However, Mr Coronado still has his female reproductive organs and interrupted his hormone treatments and delayed plans to have a full sex change, to become pregnant with his 43-year old partner who can no longer have children. The couple have spent years finding a IVF clinic that would treat them and finally had success with a clinic in Barcelona where they plan to have further treatment to become pregnant again.
It was discovered during a routine check-up the the twins had no heart beats and a scan showed that both of the babies had died. The doctors assessed that Mr Coronado's womb had not expanded enough for twins. They also emphasised that this was not related to testosterone injections the Mr Coronado usually administered as he had stopped taking the hormones to conceive and were no longer in his system.Mr Coronado said: 'We were devastated at losing our twins. Esperanza was desperate to be a mum and I was looking forward to being a dad'.
The couple has spent 16,000 Euros on IVF treatment but are eager to try again. Mr Coronado also said that: 'I want to help change people's prejudices, so more transsexual men can give birth in future'. Mr Coronado and Ms Ruiz are not the first transsexual couple in the public eye to have IVF treatment to become pregnant. Last year, a transsexual man in Oregon, US was photographed while pregnant with his daughter, who was then born in July 2008.
