Transgender parents conceiving children

Updated February 2026.

Parents who are transgender, non-binary or gender diverse conceive children in a range of different ways. You may be able to conceive without medical intervention if one partner can carry a pregnancy and the other can provide sperm. Alternatively you may be conceiving with the help of an egg, sperm or embryo donor and/or a surrogate.

This guide steers you through what you need to know about UK law. You can also read our page Latest Updates on Transgender Family Building for more information.

Legal rights in relation to stored gametes and embryos

You may have stored eggs, sperm or embryos to preserve your fertility during a gender affirmation medical process. UK law and the rules set by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority dictate the framework for gametes and embryos stored in the UK, including requirements as to consent and the period for which they can be stored.

Find out more about the law on stored eggs, sperm and embryos.

The absence of UK law on parenthood for transgender parents

It appears that no consideration was given to the possibility of trans parents conceiving children after a social or legal gender transition when either the Gender Recognition Act 2004 or the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 was enacted and so neither piece of key legislation makes any explicit provision for you. As a trans parent conceiving a child, this means your legal parenthood status is governed by wider law created for cisgender parents which is both prescriptive and gender based, and does not adequately cater for transgender parents and their children.

How does UK law work if I am a trans parent who gives birth?

If you give birth to a child in England and Wales, you will be recorded as your child’s ‘mother’, even if you identify as male or non-binary and even if you have a gender recognition certificate confirming you are legally male.

In the case of Re TT (2019), Freddy McConnell was a trans man (legally male, with a gender recognition certificate before conception) who gave birth to a son in the UK. He asked to be recorded as his son’s ‘parent’ or ‘father’ on the birth certificate, but the English birth registration authorities refused to record him as anything but the ‘mother’.  He challenged that in the High Court, and later the Court of Appeal, and was refused permission to appeal further.  At each level the court ruled that he could only be registered as the ‘mother’.

The court said that being a mother did not rely on being legally female and that it was important that birth registration records captured who had given birth to children in a consistent way.  The case also discussed whether section 12 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (which says that a gender recognition certificate does not affect someone’s status as the mother or father of a child) meant that legal gender transitions should be ignored when determining the parenthood status of a transgender parent.

The court’s rationale is open to criticism, not least because it completely overlooked the fact that birth certificates issued after surrogacy arrangements do not record birth parents, and because section 12 of the Gender Recognition Act was clearly designed to protect the status of transgender parents who already had children before transitioning.  However, the possibility of further appeal in this case now appears to be exhausted which means that, unless Parliament changes the law, the UK legal position is currently that parents who give birth in England and Wales must be registered as the ‘mother’.

If I am the partner of the parent giving birth, will I be a mother, father or parent?

If you conceive through intercourse (not common but applicable in some cases), whoever provides the sperm, irrespective of gender identity, will be your child’s legal ‘father’ and can be registered on the birth certificate as such.

If you conceive through artificial insemination or embryo transfer, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 governs who the legal parents are. Until recently, we advised that transgender parents could in many cases be recognised as their child’s legal ‘father’ or female ‘parent’ appropriately to their legal gender. While this was based on our interpretation of the legislation without any guiding case law, it was reinforced by limited experience of real birth registrations involving trans non-birth parents in the UK.

That has all been upended by the recent case of FZ v MZ (2025), a High Court decision which involved a trans man with a GRC whose wife gave birth to a child conceived with donor sperm during their marriage. The Act makes non-birth parents who conceive in these circumstances their child’s legal parents automatically (men are ‘fathers’ and women are female ‘parents’ but with exactly the same legal rights and responsibilities). However, in this case, the court ruled that a married trans parent with a GRC was excluded from being either, and had no legal connection with his child. The reasoning is technical: the judge said that the man’s GRC was not recognised as making him a man for the section of law that creates legal fatherhood, but was recognised as a man for the purpose of his marriage, which excluded him from being a female legal parent because his wife was not married to a ‘woman’ as the section requires. If you are struggling to wrap your head around how he could be doubly-disqualified and neither a man nor a woman in law, we are with you! The net effect was that not only was his legal gender ignored but that he was entirely excluded from being his child’s legal parent.

This is an apalling decision for transgender parents, which flouts the founding principles of both the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (designed to safeguard the parentage of children conceived through donor conception) and the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (designed to ensure that transgender people do not live in an intermediate zone where they are neither one gender nor the other). Unlike the decision in the McConnell case, it is as yet just a first instance decision, which means it could be overturned on appeal. We are not the lawyers involved in the case, but we are also making every effort to seek a legislative amendment via our policy and campaigning work.

It is unclear where the ruling leaves transgender non-birth parents in similar, but slightly different, situations. If you do not have a gender recognition certificate you should still be your child’s legal father or parent (albeit according to your birth rather than legal gender) if you conceive a child via home insemination and are married. If you conceive through a UK licensed fertility clinic, you may also be able to rely on an alternative section of the HFE Act (which creates legal parenthood through the signing of clinic consent forms) to establish legal parenthood, again in your birth rather than legal gender.

It is important to get specific legal advice on your circumstances to understand whether you will be your child’s legal parent and what should be recorded on your child’s birth certificate. If you are not a legal parent, there are steps you can take to safeguard your status and protect your family, including becoming a parent via a post-birth adoption process, signing parental responsibility forms and making wills. Find out more about adopting after conceiving a child and about securing parental rights in ways other than adoption.

What happens if my child is born through surrogacy and I am a transgender parent?

Surrogacy is where someone else carries a pregnancy for you without intending to act as a parent.  If you are considering surrogacy to create your family you will need to work through your options and decide whether you want to look for a surrogate in the UK or to follow an international surrogacy path.  Find out more about surrogacy in the UK.  Find out more about international surrogacy.

Under UK law, your surrogate will initially be treated as your child’s legal mother and, if she is married, her spouse or civil partner will be your child’s other legal parent.  If your child is born in the UK this is what will be recorded on your child’s initial birth certificate; if your child is born outside the UK the initial birth certificate will be registered according to the law in the country where your child is born, although will not be recognised by UK law.

As the intended parent/s, you then need to make a court application after the birth to become your child’s legal parent/s for the purposes of UK law.  This is a court process designed to remedy the legal issues in surrogacy cases, and it fully and permanently transfers legal parenthood to the intended parent/s.  You can make a joint application if you are a couple or you can apply as a single parent, although you (or at least one of you if you are a couple) needs to be your child’s biological parent to be eligible.

At the end of the court process your child will be issued with a UK birth certificate (or a replacement UK birth certificate) which recognises the transfer of parenthood. The birth certificate issued after a parental order is made records all parents, irrespective of their gender identity, as ‘parents’. If you are transgender, you will be recorded on the birth certificate in the same way as any other parent through surrogacy. Find out more about parental orders after surrogacy.

How does UK law work if I already have children when I transition?

Section 12 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 states: The fact that a person’s gender has become the acquired gender under this Act does not affect the status of the person as the mother or father of a child.

This was intended to protect the existing legal parenthood of trans parents who have children before they change legal gender.  It means that you will remain your children’s legal father if you become legally female, and you will remain your children’s legal mother if you become legally male. That may not reflect how you identify your name and relationship with your child, but you will not lose any legal status or rights in respect of your children as a result of changing your legal gender.

It is not possible, under the current law, for your children’s birth certificates to be changed retrospectively to include your revised name or legal gender.

Should the law on parenthood be changed for transgender parents?

Yes – without a doubt. UK law should allow parents to choose the parental title recorded on their children’s birth certificates, or otherwise to make all documents concerning legal parenthood gender neutral. It is important for children that their birth certificates, and the law more generally, recognises the realities of their lives and relationships.

At the moment it seems that the most likely route to law reform is a legislative one, so do write to your MP if you agree that this is important.

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