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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Adolesc Health. 2020 Apr 29;67(4):583–589. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.02.027

Table 4.

Key themes identified regarding fertility preservation decisions among transgender youth and parents participating in a cross-sectional survey study

Theme Youth Parent
Gender-based parental role “I am a man and I don’t want to be the ‘biological mother’ of anything, that is why I am not preserving my eggs.”
“I would prefer as a trans woman to give birth to my children and be able to have them as a combination with my partner, not have someone else involved as a surrogate or egg donor.”
“Me not being able to have kids myself was hard for me cuz if I had a kid I would want to be the one to carry my child and because I can’t do that I just chose not to have kids.”		 “My son has no desire to have children, and if he does decide in the future, his female partner would carry the child.”
Age and maturity level required to make FP decisions “I feel like I’m too young to really make ‘official’ and ‘final’ decisions regarding fertility” “....More information to the child, not sure they can make a decision of that magnitude as a teenager or younger”
“Most important is how crucial it would be to my child. Unsure whether he is mature enough to make fully-informed decision on his own.”
“....If it was a concern to them (which it is hard to make a 15 realize they may one day want this) then I think it would be a high priority in my eyes.”
“I am not sure my child understands that she(he) may not be able to have children in the future. I think at 14 she is not ready to make that decision just yet. 14 is young to be thinking about having children.”
Adoption as a preferred or alternative option for parenthood “I strongly think that adopting a child is just as magical and wonderful as having one, if not more so.”
“I have never been interested in having biological children. When I was a small child I instantly knew that I would choose adoption... Fortunately for me, the dysphoria is barely an issue for me because even if I were a cisgender male I’d still adopt children instead.”		 “My child, from a young age, has expressed interest in adopting children only. This is a good fit with their gender transition, so as a family we decided not to pursue fertility preservation at all....”