The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) says drug-induced liquids excreted from a biological male’s breasts is “comparable” in nutrition to real breast milk. The University of Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust (USHT) said that liquid produced by biological men who identify as women is “comparable to that produced following the birth of a baby,” according to The Telegraph..USHT, which oversees Royal Sussex County Hospital, Worthing Hospital, and Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, among many others, was the first in Britain to use the term “chestfeeding” because it is more inclusive. In 2021 USHT created what is deemed Britain’s “first clinical and language guidelines supporting trans and non-binary birthing people,” which asserted a biological male (or trans woman) can produce breast milk to feed a baby. .The hospitals back up their claims with guidance from five scientific studies dating back to the ‘70s and guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO).The most relevant study is from 2022 and found that when biological males 'chestfeed,' there are less than 1% “milk testosterone concentrations” and “no observable side effects” in the babies. However, the study lasted only five months and there is no long-term data. .A biological male can 'chestfeed' by taking a cocktail of drugs, including the hormone progestin, which makes the chest glands excrete. Another drug is needed for the person to “lactate” or produce prolactin, such as domperidone, a drug often prescribed to women who are struggling to breastfeed. .Domperidone, brand name Motilum, was not intended for artificial breastfeeding, and the manufacturer, Janssen, has actually recommended against using it for trans breastfeeding because it can harm the development of the baby’s heart. “Small amounts have been detected in breastmilk,” the manufacturer’s user guide states. “Motilium may cause unwanted side effects affecting the heart in a breastfed baby. It should be used during breastfeeding only if your physician considers this clearly necessary.”.USHT, on the other hand, insists the drug is safe and defended itself by explaining employees “advise any parent who is taking medication (for whatever reason) to seek advice on the possibility of that medication being transferred to the baby through breastfeeding and also the health implications for the baby”..Lottie Moore of the UK think tank Policy Exchange said the Trust “is unbalanced and naïve in its assertion that the secretions produced by a male on hormones can nourish an infant in the way a mother’s breast milk can.”
