London (CNN) A transgender man who gave birth with the help of fertility treatment lost his legal fight to be registered as the child's father, rather than its mother, in the UK High Court on Wednesday.

Born female, Freddy McConnell transitioned to become a man and was legally recognized as male when he became pregnant in 2017, giving birth in 2018.

The 32-year-old took legal action after a registrar told him that UK law required people who give birth to be registered as mothers on birth certificates.

This establishes the first legal definition of the term "mother" in English common law.

In ruling with the government, Andrew McFarlane, the president of the High Court's family division, deemed that being a "mother" referred to being pregnant and giving birth, regardless of whether that person, in law, was a man or a woman.

I'm saddened by the court's decision not to allow trans men to be recorded as father or parent on their children's birth certificates.



I fear this decision has distressing implications for many kinds of families. I will seek to appeal and give no more interviews at this stage. — Freddy McConnell (@freddymcconnell) September 25, 2019

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