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He Became a Father After a Journey Few Could Have Imagined
At 35, Evan Hempel knew he wanted to become a father. What followed was a deeply personal journey that would also expose an unexpected problem within the healthcare system.
Evan, a transgender man, temporarily stopped taking testosterone and became pregnant through artificial insemination using donor sperm. For him, the pregnancy was an important step toward becoming the parent he had always hoped to be.
But as the pregnancy progressed, something completely unexpected began happening.
His insurance repeatedly rejected certain pregnancy-related services because Evan was registered as male in the system. Pregnancy tests, prenatal appointments and other forms of maternity care became difficult to process because the system was not designed to handle a male patient receiving pregnancy-related treatment.
At one point, Evan reportedly spent hours explaining to an insurance representative why he needed coverage for a pregnancy test.
The problem didn’t end there. Similar issues continued with other appointments and medical claims. Eventually, Evan asked the insurer to temporarily list him as female so that his pregnancy-related care could be processed.
Despite the frustrating bureaucracy, Evan continued with his pregnancy.
He eventually gave birth to his son at Mount Auburn Hospital in Massachusetts, completing a journey that had been years in the making.
His story became an example of how healthcare systems and insurance policies can struggle when a patient’s medical needs don’t fit neatly into the categories built into their databases.
