[16] Beatie suspended testosterone hormone treatment in order to conceive but the first conception was an ectopic pregnancy with triplets that was life-threatening, requiring a surgical intervention, loss of his right fallopian tube and the embryos.
[23] The procedure, called a ring metoidioplasty, included transfer of tissue, elongation of the hormonally enlarged phallus, as well as urethral construction and lengthening.
[16][12] In it, Beatie described the prejudice he and Nancy faced after deciding to have a child,[18] writing: Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs.
[16] Within weeks of the online publication, news of his story quickly spread through national[25] and international media,[26] who dubbed Beatie "the pregnant man".
Multiple tabloids as well as mainstream news outlets reported the story,[19] after paparazzi captured images of the family leaving the St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon days later.
[34] An August 2008 issue of People featured Beatie with his daughter, sharing the cover with a larger image of presidential candidate Barack Obama posing with his family.
[3] He has made personal appearances on TV talk shows in Spain, Greece, Germany, Italy, Romania, Russia, Japan, Sweden, Poland, and the United Kingdom,[11][independent source needed] and has given keynote speeches at colleges and universities.
[54] Beatie's attorneys at the Cantor Law Group filed a memorandum showing that under Arizona State Statute, a transgender man's legal definition is set by certain medical operations, treatments, and finally a certified doctor's approval.
"Since Arizona and Hawaii have virtually the same Sex Change Statute, in this case we will prove that under the law Thomas was a man at the time of his wedding.
[55] Expert testimony was provided by Beatie's sex-reassignment surgeon, Dr. Michael Brownstein M.D., in which the doctor implied that gender is more psychological than chromosomal[citation needed].
[56][57] Despite the marriage's being put into question, the courts proceeded with custody arrangements for the children because both Beatie and Nancy legally adopted each of their three children in Oregon, in the Oregon court orders, Thomas was also listed as "father" and Nancy was listed as "mother" on each birth certificate, and each spouse had equal parental rights to custody.
[58][better source needed] The court ruled that it had a lack of subject-matter jurisdiction to grant the Beaties a divorce and that Arizona did not have to comply with accepting out-of-state birth or marriage certificates.
[56][59] The court also ruled to give Nancy joint legal decision-making, physical custody and equal parenting time, ordering Beatie to pay her nearly $240 per month in child support.
[61] In 2000–2001, Beatie was the co-chair and media chair for the Civil Unions-Civil Rights Movement in Honolulu, Hawaii, a non-profit LGBT organization for marriage equality.
He also spearheaded one-on-one discussions with doctors, politicians, and policy-makers in support of abolishing the sterilization law for Swedish transgender people.
[18] Media studies scholar Laura Tropp writes that Beatie's experience "forces society to debate the idea of what is a man and what is a woman".
[19] Sociologist Lisa Wade wrote, "I'm not sure what to make, sociologically, of the attention that Thomas' pregnancy is receiving in the mass media, but it is ripe for analysis.
[citation needed] Shortly after Susan was born, Beatie authored his first book, Labor of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy (2008).
[72][independent source needed] His other works include: The documentary Pregnant Man (2008) documented the final weeks of Beatie's pregnancy and the birth of his first child.
[78][79] In 2015, French director Jan Caplin wrote and directed the short movie Hippocampe, inspired by Thomas Beatie and his wife's attempts to have a child.