But I Can't Be Pregnant: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In the last issue of the [[Hentai]] ''[[Boys Empire]]'', {{spoiler|Hitomi}} finds out she's pregnant. {{spoiler|She's all of [[Squick|twelve]], and this is her first ovulation. She had no way of knowing until it was too late. (Note that this is possible in real life as well, although the odds of miscarriage are higher.)}}

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* In ''The Great Ten'', this is part of Mother of Champions' backstory. She was incredulous when she discovered she was pregnant, for a number of reasons - one, because her husband had recently left her due to her inability to conceive, and two, because she was visibly pregnant the day after her drunken one-night stand. As it turns out, she'd developed a special, ahem, [[Explosive Breeder|gift]], giving birth to twenty five boys days later.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* The Czech films ''[[Divided We Fall]]'' and ''[[Little Otik]]'' both in a sense follow this trope and subvert it. Both couples in both films are infertile (in both cases {{spoiler|it seems it is HIS fault, not hers}}), and both couples get around nature to create a child, either a real one - {{spoiler|by using someone else to impregnate the wife}} (''Divided We Fall'') or a monstrous one, {{spoiler|by using a piece of wood carved into the rough shape of a child as a doll, which then comes to life and starts to devour the household}} (''Little Otik''). In each case, it is the neighbours who are forced to suspend their disbelief at the "fact" the wife is pregnant, rather than the couple themselves, who collude in trying to bring a child into the world.

* ''[[Dogma]]''. Despite having been infertile for apparently years, at the end of the movie Bethany is told by Metatron that she's [[Double Standard Rape (Divine on Mortal)|miraculously]] pregnant (necessary because she's the Last Scion - need to keep that bloodline going). It's heavily implied that because she's a descendant of the Virgin Mary her pregnancy is similar to Mary's conception of Jesus.

* A really interesting example in the French-Canadian film ''Familia'': teenage Marguerite learns she is pregnant, ''but she's never had sex.'' Though not really religious, she begins to wonder if this is a second virgin birth. {{spoiler|She eventually learns that someone slipped her a date-rape drug at a party; she thought she had just been really drunk.}}

* In ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]] 2: The Golden Army'', {{spoiler|Abe finds out that Liz is pregnant with Hellboy's children. Later, Liz is seen going through about four or five pregnancy tests, on account of the pregnancy}} being physically impossible for several reasons.

* ''[[Village of the Damned]]'' (from the sci-fi novel ''[[The Midwich Cuckoos]]'' by [[John Wyndham]]). Aliens impregnate every woman of child-bearing age in a small English town. Initial reactions range from joy (from a previously childless couple) to suspicion (from a husband who's been away at sea) to the above incredulous reaction from a teenage virgin.

* In the film ''Women in Trouble'', porn starlet Elektra Luxx is informed by her doctor that she is now gravid, and she responds by quoting this trope's name almost verbatim:

'''Doctor''': Then you can be pregnant. }}

 

* Examples from [[The Bible]]: Abraham and Sarah in the book of Genesis, where Sarah didn't believe it at first when Abaraham revealed that God had told her she'd be pregnant, as she was past childbearing age. Subverted with the Virgin Mary in the synoptic Gospels, since ''she'' knew beforehand that she'd be the mother of Christ, but Joseph [[Mistaken for Cheating|suspects her of infidelity]] until an angel shows up to personally set him straight. There's also the infertility example with Elizabeth and Zechariah, parents of John the Baptist. Here it's Zechariah who utters the "but that's impossible" line. He's struck with dumbness until the child is born as punishment.

* Janette Oke's ''Prairie Romance'' series, starting with ''Love Comes Softly'', develops a huge clan of children under the care and guidance of main character Marty and her husband (Davis?). Several books down the line, after Oke had "officially" finished the series, the series starts back up with Marty realizing that she is again pregnant... and thinking it beyond embarrassing that her daughter will be younger than several of her grandchildren.

* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Friday (novel)|Friday]]'', the titular protagonist is sterile by permanent (but reversible) surgery, and is therefore extremely surprised to discover that she's expecting during a long interstellar voyage. It turns out that {{spoiler|her employers pulled a fast one on her, implanting the embryo she was supposed to deliver to a wealthy couple in her rather than keeping it in a stasis capsule. She concludes from this that they plan to [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|kill her]] at the end of her mission, and decides to jump ship early. She ends up raising the child as her own.}}

 

* Charlotte Ross' [[Reality Subtext|real life pregnancy]] was written into the 11th season of ''[[NYPD Blue]]'', despite her character's being established as infertile due to complications from a teen pregnancy. This was a rather mild retcon, revealed as her doctors telling her it would be ''almost'' impossible for her to get pregnant.

* Delenn's pregnancy in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' was thought to be impossible, due to her hybrid biology. [[Word of God]] states that Sheridan was aware a child ''was'' possible, but wasn't sure if the future had been changed, and, if it had been changed, if the circumstances that led to the child were still possible. Time travel is tricky that way.

* Subverted in ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', where Blanche's suspected pregnancy turns out to be menopause.

** This version was inverted on ''[[Dharma and Greg]]'', when Abby (mother of an adult daughter) thought she was entering menopause, and turned out to be pregnant.

** The same inversion (what was thought to be menopause turns out to be pregnancy) appears in ''Father Of The Bride 2''.

** Murphy Brown does it both ways: she thinks her pregnancy is menopause, then when she does go through menopause she thinks she's pregnant.

** An episode of ''[[Sisters]]'' had oldest sister Alex thinking she was pregnant because her period was late and that "the last time that happened, we named her (her daughter) Reed!." Of course, it turned out to be menopause.

* Season two of ''Too Close For Comfort'' focused on Muriel's pregnancy, Henry and Muriel having been established as in their late 40s/early 50s, with two adult children already.

* Soap opera example: ''[[All My Children]]'''s Opal Gardner (who'd already had three adult children) found herself pregnant (after, of course, thinking she was starting menopause) by new husband (and resident Scrooge) Palmer Cortlandt. Palmer immediately accused her of infidelity because he'd been rendered sterile years ago "by a polo accident." Medical tests later proved that his plumbing still worked.

* In ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' , the character Nicole was shot and told that she would never be able to have children due to internal scarring. Lo and behold, a few years later Nicole is impreginated by EJ. {{spoiler|Which then turned into a [[Convenient Miscarriage]]}}

* In the NBC show ''[[Scrubs]]'', Dr. Cox's ex-wife, Jordan, became pregnant (as she was pregnant in real life). Since Dr. Cox had previously gotten a vasectomy, they addressed this - Dr. Cox asked if Jordan cheated on him shortly after she tested pregnant, and later when they told the rest of the staff about her pregnancy, he does a rant where he mentions his vasectomy didn't take. He and Jordan later get [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|revenge on the doctor who performed it]].

'''Dr. Cox''': [[Nightmare Fuel|Never. They ''never'' say "ribs."]] }}

** ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' did the same thing with Sookie and Jackson when they wrote in Melissa McCarthy's pregnancy despite having an episode two seasons earlier where Jackson had a vasectomy that he didn't want. They retconned it by having Jackson say he lied about getting it since he hadn't wanted it in the first place, and that he thought Sookie would stay on her birth control pills to keep her skin looking fresh.

* The Korean couple (Jin and Sun) in ''[[Lost]]''. Jin was sterile before he came to the island, which causes Sun to believe the baby was conceived during her extramarital affair before the plane crash. However, Juliet explains that male sperm count is five times normal on the island, and a sonogram shows that the baby was indeed conceived on the island.

* Scully in ''[[The X-Files]]'' got pregnant about four seasons after being diagnosed as infertile. Interestingly, the actress' real-life pregnancy had taken place, and been somewhat clumsily covered with big coats, sitting at desks, etc. about two years before the character was supposedly rendered infertile.

* Inverted in ''[[Friends]]'': Courteney Cox and her husband were trying for a baby, so her character Monica and her husband Chandler started trying for one too. When Cox and David Arquette started having fertility problems, Monica and Chandler started having them too. Ironically, Cox became pregnant in the final season, when Monica and Chandler had already agreed to adopt. Lots of baggy tops towards the end of season 10.

* In ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'', Gabby has a miscarriage in the second season and her doctor says she is unable to bear children any longer. By the fifth season, however, thanks to the [[Time Skip]], she has two young daughters. (The "But I can't be pregnant" scene is later shown in a flashback, complete with Gabby slapping the doctor).

* In ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', House confronts a complainy teenage girl on an airplane:

'''House''': You're pregnant. }}

** Played with in the episode "Joy to the World," where a woman is pregnant even though she and her fiance are waiting till marriage, and she swears she hasn't cheated. A skeptical House runs a DNA test and returns dumbfounded to tell them that there actually is no father, and the woman is the first ever case of human parthogenesis, an incredible phenomenon... except she's not, she just cheated on her fiance, and he's lying so that they'll be bowled over with elation and gratitude and get him a Christmas present, which he bet Wilson he could get a patient to do.

* Maude in ''[[Maude]]'' became unexpectedly pregnant at 47 while taking birth control, and later had the very first sitcom abortion.

* Claudia Black, who played Vala Mal Doran on ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', got pregnant with her first child shortly into fliming for the ninth season. She was reportedly worried about being taken off the show or ruining the plot.. fortunately the creators were already planning a storyline involving her being pregnant. As a result, Vala ended up lost in the Ori's home galaxy for much of Season 9, and when she came back in the last few episodes, was revealed {{spoiler|to be pregnant with a [[Dark Messiah|child conceived by the Ori]] so as to [[Batman Gambit|get around the rules barring them from interfering with an Ancient-protected galaxy.]] }}

* In ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' Lister sees his future self with twin babies. The question is raised of how this could be possible without a woman on board, and he says it will be fun finding out. {{spoiler|It is certainly fun, but not for him - to Rimmer's delight, [[Mister Seahorse|Lister gets pregnant]] by his parallel universe self and has to give birth to the twins, conveniently between series 2 and 3.}}

* ''[[Coupling]]'' had a pregnancy scare storyline at the end of season 3 - Sally is the one who believes she's at risk and asks the other girls to take a test as well as a control group. She then gets the tests mixed up, so when she finds out one of them is positive, she realises it can be any of them. While they're waiting to go back and buy more tests, {{spoiler|Susan}} reveals that she just found out she's infertile. Towards the end, {{spoiler|Jane}}'s test comes back negative, which results in {{spoiler|Sally}} assuming it's her, and becoming deeply unhappy since it probably wrecks her chances with {{spoiler|Patrick}}. And then {{spoiler|Susan}} walks in with a positive test.

'''Vyvyan''': Yeah, that's what ''she'' said! You just can't trust women, can you? }}

* Played with in ''[[Becker]]''. After performing a fertility test on a male patient, Becker tells his (female) employee that "Your sperm count is higher than his!" Said patient's wife ends up pregnant anyway.

'''Becker:''' [[Sure, Let's Go with That]] }}

* In ''[[Sugar Rush (TV)]]'', Kim's mother Stella becomes pregnant after getting back together with Nathan, even though in the first series she told her lover that he had {{spoiler|had a vasectomy}}.

* ''[[Married... with Children]]'' subverted this when a deceased relative's will stipulates that any family member that conceives a new child will get a $500,000 inheritance. Al and Peg naturally go for it, ''but'' Peg doesn't want to pregnant. She just wants regular sex, so she secretly takes birth control. Al finds out eventually and gets his revenge by faking Peg's home pregnancy test for a positive result. Peg goes into this mode, but Al twists the knife further by saying another relative beat them to the inheritance and reminds her of everything she went through with Kelly and Bud (morning sickness, weight gain and diaper changes). Peg effectively [[Goes Mad From the Revelation]], while Al is gleeful.

 

** The [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]] adventure ''Rage Across the Heavens'' largely revolves around a werewolf cub born of two supposedly infertile Metis werewolves (the parents are both offspring of two werewolves, rather than one werewolf and either a human or a wolf).

** Normally, [[Promethean: The Created|Prometheans]] are infertile until they finally become human, but one very rare possibility is that they manage to have a baby of their own, whether with a human or another Promethean. The kids turn out both mortal and normal... except that they can sense Azoth and are completely immune to [[Hate Plague|Disquiet]].

** [[Changeling: The Lost|Fetches]] are infertile as well, being magical constructs. Under certain exceptional circumstances, however, they may produce offspring. Fifty percent chance it's a nightmarish thing of evil, fifty percent chance it's mostly normal but with some sort of [[Ambiguous Disorder]] and with blood that poisons the True Fae.

 

 

* Hatsuki reacting thusly in ''[[Moon Over June]]'' is quite understandable [[Justified Trope|given that she does not have sex with men]] in either her personal or professional life. However when one's... costars... do not clean themselves up/off/out well enough between scenes then such things can happen.

* ''[[Gene Catlow]]'': This is Cotton's reaction when Tatavania tells him she's pregnant. They had never [[Power Perversion Potential|(physically)]] made love. Cotton's shock lasts all of five seconds, since [[Hand Wave|they decide]] their bond via [[Applied Phlebotinum|Sight Of The Soul]] is so powerful, their spiritual humping [[A Wizard Did It|spilled over into the physical world.]]

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* ''[[Paradise]]'': In "Reverberations," a story in this setting, a [[Gender Bending|gender-bent]] character's unexpected pregnancy causes the [[Masquerade]] concealing her new gender from friends and family members to fail.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Inverted in ''[[South Park]]'', where Ms. Garrison assumes that not having a period after having a lot of random, unprotected sex with random men has made her pregnant ([[Dead Baby Comedy|she becomes excited because now she can have an abortion]]). The doctor informs her that as a transexual, she lacks both a uterus and eggs, and therefore is not physically capable of getting pregnant. Ms. Garrison claims the doctor is a bigot.

 

* Subverted in the Strikeforce Mixed Martial Arts promotion before the highly-publicized August 2009 fight between Gina "Conviction" Carano and Christine "Cyborg" Santos to crown American MMA's first female 145-lb champion. Santos' management called Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker the day before the fight and told him that the California State Athletic Comission had just informed them that Santos was pregnant and wouldn't be allowed to fight. They called back a few minutes later and informed a panicking Coker that it was just a joke.

* [[Truth in Television]]. Infertility is not the same as sterility and a sufficiently fertile female partner can compensate for a low sperm count. There have been recorded incidences where men with vasectomies have fathered children. Same thing for females who have had an operation. And at least one particularly fertile couple where ''both'' had the operation, and a child was produced anyway.

** There are also cases where a couple fails to conceive despite fertility treatments, but end up pregnant soon after "giving up". It is said that stress can be a factor to infertility some times, and "trying" to conceive may make matters worse.

** There was a similar example in the summer of 1997 in New Jersey, where a young woman named Melissa Drexler, dubbed "The Prom Mom" slipped out of her prom, gave birth in the bathroom, strangled the baby and left his body in the garbage, then returned to the prom to eat and dance. No one ever remembered her even looking as though she were pregnant, not even a girlfriend who had been trying on dresses with her only weeks before. It's believed that fear of her parents' anger led her to be in denial over her pregnancy.

* The TLC show ''I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant'' is dedicated to real life examples of this, usually either couples who thought they couldn't have kids, women who had their tubes tied, or party girls who didn't want to get pregnant.

** Or, in rare cases, where women menstruated throughout their whole pregnancy, didn't gain weight, and didn't feel the baby moving. It's one in a million, but it can happen.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:Plots]]