‘We’re pregnant!’

Myles Brady Davis and his wife, Precious, are expecting a baby in December. Both the Brady Davises are transgender. (Mystic Images photography )

When Myles Brady Davis found out he was pregnant, he rejoiced with his wife, Precious. They held hands, they teared up.

They sank to the living room floor and melted into each other, just savoring the moment.

“Yeah, it was beautiful,” said Brady Davis. “But then I didn’t believe it, and I went to Walgreen’s and I bought, like, 12 tests.”

Brady Davis, 37, of Chicago, had reason to be cautious; both he and his wife are transgender, and he’s one of maybe a few thousand transgender men worldwide who have gotten pregnant. The couple’s pregnancy comes after considerable struggle; an initial round of IVF failed, and both Myles and Precious — the first transgender bride on the “Say Yes to the Dress” franchise on TLC — had to go off the hormones that reinforce their gender identities to get pregnant.

Still, the LGBTQ power couple — he’s communications director for Equality Illinois, she’s a communications manager for the Sierra Club — are thrilled to be expecting.

“To see that he is the one who is carrying my child is the most beautiful thing in the world,” said Precious, 33.

“I am so excited to see a version of us.”

Myles comes from a long line of men who knew their soulmates at first sight, he said, and he was no different. In 2014, he’d recently returned to Chicago and was volunteering for an LGBTQ organization on the South Side. The executive director gave him a list of people to contact for help with a project, and the last name on the list was Precious Davis, then an LGBTQ youth outreach coordinator at the Center on Halsted.

The first time he saw her, she was coming down the stairs at her workplace to meet him.

“I just saw my future flash before my eyes,” he said. “I saw her in the park with kids. I saw the life we live now. I just saw my happiness in her.”

Precious didn’t initially buy into the vision; she told Myles she was too busy with her career to date.

“Like all legendary people, I persisted,” Myles said with a chuckle. A year later, they started dating, and they say they never looked back.

Myles always knew he wanted to have children. Precious, who was given up for adoption when she was 4 and has lived in foster care, said motherhood wasn’t on her radar. In many ways, she felt she already had kids: the homeless LGBTQ youth she mentored at the Center on Halsted. Asked what changed her mind, she answered in one word: “Myles.”

“My husband is the most beautiful person I have ever met in my entire life,” she said. He cares deeply, she said. He’s passionate about social justice. “And he sees me in a way that no one has before. The way that Myles loves me is unconditional.”

Stopping their gender-reinforcing hormones was difficult for both of them.

“I started to watch my body change in ways that were really triggering for my gender dysphoria,” said Myles, referring to the psychological pain of living with a body that doesn’t match your gender identity.

“But because I had a partner who understood what I was going through, it made it really bearable.”

When Precious had been off her hormones long enough, her body was able to produce healthy sperm, which was combined with an egg from Myles’ body. The embryo was implanted in Myles’ uterus.

The Brady Davises’ fertility specialist at Fertility Centers of Illinois, Brian Kaplan, said transgender pregnancies are still unusual, and treating the Brady Davises was satisfying on multiple levels — societal, medical and personal.

“They’re just such a nice couple,” he said.

The government doesn’t track transgender pregnancies, but Trystan Reese, director of family formation at the nonprofit Family Equality, said via email that he estimates there are hundreds, if not thousands, of transgender men who have given birth worldwide. Reese runs a secret Facebook group with 278 transgender members from around the world, all of whom have given birth.

Reached by phone in New York, where they were enjoying a short “babymoon,” or pre-baby romantic getaway, the Brady Davises, who are due in December, said Myles has what looks like a beer belly and his chest has grown.

Used to being seen as a man, he now has to deal with uncomfortable moments in public bathrooms, where people are no longer as sure about his gender. As a black man, he said, he already had safety concerns about racially motivated violence, but now he also finds himself assessing risk based on perceptions of his gender.

Still, he said, he’s having a great time, due to the support of family, lifelong friends and his wife, who gives him daily pep talks.

“I feel like the man , because she really affirms me,” he said.

“He’s my seahorse,” Precious said.

Asked if his wife says that because of the seahorse’s gently protruding midsection, Myles said no.

“The male seahorses,” he said, “are the ones who give birth.”