A US man who is six months pregnant, 10 years after undergoing a sex change operation, has said he considers his unborn child a "miracle". Thomas Beatie, 34, said it was his right to have a child. The medical procedures he underwent a decade ago did not affect his reproductive system. His wife says she inseminated him using sperm from an anonymous donor. Their doctor says it is a normal pregnancy. Mr Beatie told chat show host Oprah Winfrey he had always wanted a child.

"It's not a male or female desire to have a child," he said. "It's a human desire. I have a very stable male identity." Mr Beatie, of Bend, Oregon, had breast surgery to remove glands and flatten his chest after deciding to become a man 10 years ago. "I opted not to do anything with my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day," a thinly bearded Mr Beatie told Oprah Winfrey.

"I didn't know how. It was just a dream." He has been married for five years to wife Nancy, who also appeared on the show along with her two grown-up daughters from a previous marriage, Amber and Jen. They spoke of their admiration for their mother and Mr Beatie. Mrs Beatie said the couple's roles would not change once the baby was born. "He's going to be the father and I'm going to be the mother," she said. They revealed Mr Beatie - a former Hawaiian beauty queen - had conceived by artificial insemination, carried out with a syringe by his wife in their home, with sperm purchased from a bank.

In their first TV interview, for The Oprah Winfrey Show and People magazine, the couple were shown at home in the room that will be the baby's nursery. Viewers across the US on Thursday saw footage of Mr Beatie's ultrasound scan and heard a heartbeat. He said: "I can't believe it. I can't believe she's inside me. We see her as our little miracle." The baby would be "daddy's little princess", said Mr Beatie, who described himself as a tomboy growing up. The couple say they had been refused medical assistance by eight different doctors, before finding one who was prepared to help with the pregnancy. Mr Beatie's obstetrician, Dr Kimberly James, told Oprah Winfrey: "This baby is totally healthy. This is what I consider a normal pregnancy."