History Main / ButICantBePregnant

* 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 one of Creator/EdwardRutherfurd's multi-generation historical novels, a young woman is told by her doctor that she can't have children, and reluctantly backs off on a budding relationship with a young man, believing he'll want kids more than he does, her. A third party informs the young man of this, so he tells her that ''he's'' sterile himself. Within a year of their marriage, they're expecting, because ''he'' was lying to sidestep her fear that he'd reject an infertile woman, and her ''doctor'' had bungled her diagnosis.

* In season 4 of ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'' Linda is very surprised to learn that she's pregnant as a result of her relationship with the angel Amenadiel because nobody thought it was possible for Celestials to procreate with humans. She comes around to the idea of impending motherhood pretty quickly but does worry that her child will have angel wings (he doesn't).

* ''Series/TheAliens'': Antoine tells Lewis his mother and he didn't think Lewis could be his son, as he comes from [[HumanAliens another species]]. When she got pregnant, the couple assume it was by her husband at first.

* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'': After Adalind tricks Nick into sleeping with her in order to strip him of his Grimm powers, she is shocked and appalled to discover that she's pregnant with his baby. This happens almost immediately after she spent most of the previous season pregnant with her firstborn Diana. However, it is a WrittenInInfirmity as the actress Claire Coffee was now pregnant in real life. The arc then centered around the two archenemies having to put their differences aside to keep their potentially superpowered half-grimm/ half hexenbeist baby safe.

* In the ''Series/AlienNation'' ExpandedUniverse novel ''Cross of Blood'', Tectonese Cathy Frankel turned out to be pregnant. This came as a shock to her human boyfriend Detective Matt Sikes because, among the Tectonese, pregnancy can only occur when the female is inseminated by a "third" gender or "catalyst." It is later discovered that, due to their genetic adaptability, a Human/Tectonese pairing can result in pregnancy. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, [[TearJerker Matt and Cathy's child was unable to survive after being born, due to her mixed genetics]].]]

** A particularly heartbreaking example, as pregnant women tend not to survive their pregnancy on the island-if the baby was conceived before Sun came to the island, she's fine, and if the baby is miraculously her husband's and conceived after their island-inspired reconciliation, she's going to die. [[TearJerker She's very happy with the result]].

** Subverted with the Virgin Mary in [[Literature/TheFourGospels the synoptic Gospels]], since ''she'' knew beforehand that she'd be the mother of Christ, though that's because she thought to ask about it. When she got first got the news from the ArchangelGabriel, she replied, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" Gabriel explained that God is TheOmnipotent. But Joseph quite understandably [[MistakenForCheating suspected her of infidelity]] until an angel appeared to him personally to set him straight. Her apparently dubious story is that she is pregnant, "having known no man." ([[{{God}} The Father]] was not a man of course.)

* Inverted in [[http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sea/274495936.html this]] story of a man who'd had a vasectomy and found out his girlfriend of four months was pregnant. He knew that because of his operation (and the fact that he had two negative tests for sperm in his seminal fluid) that the child was ''extremely'' unlikely to be his, and that she was just telling him it was so she'd trap him into a marriage. He broke up with her, and rumor had it that a) she kept the baby and b) the kid's real father was a member of some band she'd gone to see.

If there is some sort of supernatural explanation for why this supposedly infertile character is pregnant, see MysticalPregnancy.

A character finds themself or he finds his female partner pregnant after being declared infertile by doctors. Also occurs when [[InterspeciesRomance the prospective parents are of different species]], of grandparenting age, or if the mother hasn't had sex in a long time, if ever. Often, the male will accuse his partner of cheating, only to eat crow later when medical tests (either on himself or a paternity test) proves he's the father. In television, this trope is often the result of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot an actress' real-life pregnancy]]. A favored trope of soap operas.

* ''Film/BabyMama'': [[spoiler:At the end of the film, Kate, who was supposed to be infertile or close to, discovers that she is pregnant]].

* 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.

A woman comes to the doctor with her teenage daughter, who's complaining about an upset stomach. After the examination, the doc determines the girl is roughly four months pregnant. The women go berserk, claiming that it is completely impossible. After some failed attempts to explain, the doctor turns toward the window and starts looking out cautiously. "What's up, why are you ignoring us?" "Well, I once heard about a case like this. There was a falling star and three rich guys came with expensive gifts. And there's no way I'm gonna miss it!"

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_pregnancy False pregnancy]], or pseudocyesis, is the exact {{inversion}} of this trope in real life (and sometimes even in fiction.) UsefulNotes/MaryTudor was believed to have suffered two of these, with historians suggesting multiple possible reasons she did so, including psychological reasons (basically she wanted to be pregnant so much her body tricked itself into thinking she was), fibroid tumors, and ovarian or uterine cancer (which very likely did at least happen in her second false pregnancy, as it's believed to be the cause of her death).

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_pregnancy False pregnancy]], or pseudocyesis, is the exact {{inversion}} of this trope in real life (and sometimes even in fiction.)

A character finds herself (or [[Transgender himself]]) or he finds his female partner pregnant after being declared infertile by doctors. Also occurs when [[InterspeciesRomance the prospective parents are of different species]], of grandparenting age, or if the mother hasn't had sex in a long time, if ever. Often, the male will accuse his partner of cheating, only to eat crow later when medical tests (either on himself or a paternity test) proves he's the father. In television, this trope is often the result of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot an actress' real-life pregnancy]]. A favored trope of soap operas.

A character finds herself (or [[UsefulNotes/Transgender him]][[MisterSeahorse self]]) or he finds his female partner pregnant after being declared infertile by doctors. Also occurs when [[InterspeciesRomance the prospective parents are of different species]], of grandparenting age, or if the mother hasn't had sex in a long time, if ever. Often, the male will accuse his partner of cheating, only to eat crow later when medical tests (either on himself or a paternity test) proves he's the father. In television, this trope is often the result of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot an actress' real-life pregnancy]]. A favored trope of soap operas.

A character finds herself (or [[Transgender him]][[MisterSeahorse self]]) or he finds his female partner pregnant after being declared infertile by doctors. Also occurs when [[InterspeciesRomance the prospective parents are of different species]], of grandparenting age, or if the mother hasn't had sex in a long time, if ever. Often, the male will accuse his partner of cheating, only to eat crow later when medical tests (either on himself or a paternity test) proves he's the father. In television, this trope is often the result of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot an actress' real-life pregnancy]]. A favored trope of soap operas.

A character finds herself (or [[MisterSeahorse himself]]) or he finds his female partner pregnant after being declared infertile by doctors. Also occurs when [[InterspeciesRomance the prospective parents are of different species]], of grandparenting age, or if the mother hasn't had sex in a long time, if ever. Often, the male will accuse his partner of cheating, only to eat crow later when medical tests (either on himself or a paternity test) proves he's the father. In television, this trope is often the result of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot an actress' real-life pregnancy]]. A favored trope of soap operas.

* The Korean couple (Jin and Sun) in ''Series/{{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.

* Once Bella becomes pregnant in ''Film/TheTwilightSaga: Breaking Dawn'' Edward asks if it's even possible as he is a vampire (who doesn't age) and Bella is a human.
** When you consider it, that's not the question he should be asking. The ''real'' question is, how did a being with no functioning circulatory system manage to - ''ahem'' - get happy?

-->'''Becker:''' You know what this means...\\
'''Patient:''' ...it's a miracle!\\
'''Becker:''' SureLetsGoWithThat.

-->'''The Worthless Peons''': I want my baby-back (baby-back) baby-back (baby-back) baby-back (baby-back) baby-back, I want my baby-back (baby-back)…\\

-->'''Neil:''' But that's impossible!\\
'''Vyvyan:''' Yeah, that's what ''she'' said! You just can't trust women, can you?

* ''Webcomic/GeneCatlow'': This is Cotton's reaction when Tatavania tells him she's pregnant. They had never [[PowerPerversionPotential (physically)]] made love. Cotton's shock lasts all of five seconds, as [[HandWave they both figure]] their bond via [[AppliedPhlebotinum Sight Of The Soul]] is so powerful, their spiritual humping [[YourMindMakesItReal spilled over into the physical world.]]

* [[http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007359,00.html Horrifying variation from France]], where ''at least five'' women were in such a state of denial/trauma over their pregnancies that ''they killed the newborns and hid the bodies'' -- in some cases ''over a half-dozen times'' -- and forgot it ever happened. The woman in the latest case had had a difficult pregnancy and was too scared to go to the doctor, and her husband didn't notice anything unusual (eight times) because she was chubby. The doctor quoted in the report feels that "pregnancy denial" is a legitimate psychological problem and that it's foolish to think it's exclusively French.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_pregnancy False pregnancy]], or pseudocyesis, is the exact [[InvertedTrope inversion]] of this trope in real life (and sometimes even in fiction.)

* 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, [[ExplosiveBreeder gift]], giving birth to twenty five boys days later.

* Wanda's fellow Avenger ComicBook/MsMarvel also once found herself pregnant without knowing how and then within a matter of days came to full term, delivering a boy in the infamous ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' #200. It turned out to be a sordid story of Marcus, son of the timetravelling Immortus, [[DoubleStandardRapeSciFi abducting Carol Danvers, rewriting her memories, and using her to give birth to himself so that he could live with her]]. To make it worse none of the Avengers seemed at all bothered by this until a later issue by Creator/ChrisClaremont had Carol come back and deliver an ''epic'' WhatTheHellHero to the Avengers (and presumably the editors who let that one slip by).

* In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9862443/1/Timing-is-Everything Timing is Everything]], [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans Raven]] is shocked when she gets pregnant - she's only supposed to be capable of having children with someone who has demon blood. However, she's dating Beast Boy, and apparently his shapeshifting abilities extend to his sperm enough to fool Raven's reproductive system.

The doctor shrugged. "I can show you an ultrasound, if you like."
* Happened in the Franchise/MassEffect's ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11073051/1/Resurgence Resurgence]]'' (third part of the ''Parable'' series), Jane didn't believe the news at first because of two big reasons: 1) She was born infertile due to her mother's drug abusing habit during her own pregnancy, and 2) Her husband Garrus was an alien and a dextro one at that. But as it turn out, her "Reaper uterus" has managed to create two fetuses using a combination of an incomplete ovum and a pair of sperms for each one, so the babies turned out to be mostly turian with some human traits replacing inferior turian ones.

%%* In ''Film/FacingTheGiants'', a man finds he is incapable of getting his wife pregnant. After this whole plot line where he is extremely religious, his wife gets another %%404: end of sentence not found.

* ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' uses this in the most horrifying way imaginable: [[spoiler: Even though she is unable to bear children, Elizabeth finds out that she is indeed pregnant, but with an alien abomination. And so she performs an emergency surgery on herself while conscious in order to remove the creature from her womb]].

* In the ''Series/AlienNation'' ExpandedUniverse novel ''Cross of Blood'', Tectonese Cathy Frankel turned out to be pregnant. This came as a shock to her human boyfriend Detective Matt Sikes, because among the Tectonese, pregnancy can only occur when the female is inseminated by a "third" gender or "catalyst." It is later discovered that, due to their genetic adaptability, a Human/Tectonese pairing can result in pregnancy. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, [[TearJerker Matt and Cathy's child was unable to survive after being born, due to her mixed genetics]].]]

* In the ''{{Literature/Deverry}}'' novels, Rhys' first wife is cast aside for being barren. Her mother-in-law arranges for her to remarry to a widower with several children from a previous marriage (and as such would not need to care as to whether or not his new wife could provide an heir). Shortly afterwards, she surprises everyone by getting pregnant, and later gives birth to a healthy boy. It seems that ''she'' wasn't the sterile one in her previous marriage...

** Arguably subverted by the fact that, unlikely as these conceptions might be, none of the characters propose any alternative explanation for their failure to menstruate (e.g. wondering if they'd been sterilized rather than impregnated). There's little actual denial, just dismay.

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

*** Chloe was also told that it was very unlikely she could ever have children, due to the combined effects of surviving leukemia and a severe poisoning. Then, after surviving a plunge in an elevator, she was found to not only be basically unharmed, but also pregnant.

* Delenn's pregnancy in ''Series/BabylonFive'' was thought to be impossible, due to her hybrid biology. WordOfGod 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.

* ''Series/CodeBlack'': A young woman, the first of her family to got to college, presents with pregnancy symptoms. The mother reacts badly and accuses the doctor of being racist. Then when the test confirm the diagnosis, the mother is angry at the girl, who insists she is a virgin. It turns out that sometimes it is zebras. [[spoiler:The girl has a rare brain tumor that produces the same protein that pregnancy tests look for. The girl wants to go back to being pregnant.]]

* On ''Series/DocMartin'' a patient told Martin she couldn't be pregnant and he started staring out the window, when she asked why he said, "The last time this happened there were 3 wise men and a shinning star".

* In ''[[Series/FlashForward2009 FlashForward]]'', Janis sees in her flash-forward that she is pregnant. She can't believe this as she is a lesbian. Eventually she does become pregnant by [[spoiler:having sex with Demetri]].

* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'': After Adalind tricks Nick into sleeping with her in order to strip him of his Grimm powers, she is shocked and appalled to discover that she's pregnant with his baby. This happens almost immediately after she spent most of the previous season pregnant with her first born Diana. However, it is a WrittenInInfirmity as the actress Claire Coffee was now pregnant in real life. The arc then centered around the two archenemies having to put their differences aside to keep their potentially superpowered half-grimm/ half hexenbeist baby safe.

** House confronts a complainy teenage girl on an airplane:

** An episode includes a woman who is pregnant, but claimed she couldn't have been pregnant as she hadn't had sex in over a year. Turns out [[spoiler: she'd unknowingly been sleepwalking and having sex with her ex who lived in the same apartment building]].

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' 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 get pregnant. She's just happy that Al ''wants'' to have sex with her for once, so she secretly takes birth control so they'll keep trying. 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 GoesMadFromTheRevelation, while Al is gleeful.

** A ridiculous example was this teenage girl who brought this guy onto the Sally Jesse Raphael show because she was ''convinced'' he was the father, because apparently he was the only guy she'd slept with. He was relieved when it turned out not to be his child, but she was still really confused. Turns out that she'd been regularly sleeping with her step-brother, and she was under the impression that she couldn't get pregnant by him. He was the father, of course.
* Charlotte Ross' [[RealitySubtext real life pregnancy]] was written into the 11th season of ''Series/NYPDBlue'', despite her character having been 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.

* Claudia Black, who played Vala Mal Doran on ''Series/StargateSG1'', 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 [[DarkMessiah child conceived by the Ori]] so as to [[BatmanGambit get around the rules barring them from interfering with an Ancient-protected galaxy.]] ]] When Vala is finally able to communicate with the SGC, she is completely confused as to how she could be pregnant since, as she put it, "I did none of the necessary bits."

* A different take on it occurred in ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'', when Xena was rather shocked to be pregnant - she hadn't had sex in ''ages''.
* Scully in ''Series/TheXFiles'' 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.

** Sarah, already ninety, laughed when the messengers told her hundred-year-old husband Abraham about the prophecy of her pregnancy. Sure enough they had a son, Isaac, whose name means "laughter."

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', where Ms. Garrison assumes that not having a period after having a lot of random, unprotected sex with random men has made her pregnant ([[BlackComedy she becomes excited because now she can have an abortion]]). The doctor informs her that as a transsexual, she lacks both a uterus and eggs, and therefore is not physically capable of getting pregnant. Ms. Garrison claims the doctor is a bigot.
* The final episode of Hanna-Barbera's 1970 prime time series ''WesternAnimation/WheresHuddles'' had a doctor's diagnosis making everyone think that Bubba--a ''male'', mind you--was pregnant.

* One particularly intriguing case in Aarathi Prasad's book ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Like-Virgin-Science-Redesigning-Rules/dp/1851689117 Like A Virgin: How Science Is Redesigning the Rules of Sex]]'' is that of [[http://io9.com/5936056/how-scientists-tried-to-confirm-a-virgin-birth-long-before-dna-tests Emmimarie Jones]] and her daughter Monica. In 1956, scientists thought for a while that they had discovered a genuine case of human parthenogenesis, as Emmimarie Jones had never (so far as she knew) had sex with anyone when she conceived Monica, and didn't believe the doctor who told her she was pregnant. The last of a series of tests proved that Monica was ''not'' genetically identical to her mother after all, and further scientific discoveries in the intervening decades have confirmed that natural human parthenogenesis is impossible; the need for both masculine and feminine epi-genetic imprinting prevents it. The only scientific explanation Prasad and everyone else has been able to offer is that somehow, during a period when Emmimarie Jones was heavily sedated in an all-women's hospital, a man must have sneaked in and [[DudeShesLikeInAComa "taken advantage" of her]].

* 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.

** There are also cases where a couple fails to conceive despite fertility treatments, but end up pregnant soon after "giving up" on it. Some studies suggest that stress can be a factor to infertility sometimes, and [[YouWereTryingTooHard "trying" to conceive may actually make matters worse]].

** Plenty of [=OB/GYN=]s can share stories about this. Mercifully, not all end tragically. Like the 14 year old girl brought to the hospital by her mother for abdominal pains, only for both the ER doctor and the OB/GYN to take one look at her and ask "How far along are you?" (she was tall, thin, and very obviously pregnant). Both mother and daughter looked the doctors straight in the eye and declared, "She's/I'm not pregnant, she's/I'm a virgin". Their insistence on this continued even with a sonogram showing the fetus in utero, even as her labor pains increased, right up until she delivered ''twins'', at which point the newly minted ''grandmother'' fainted from shock.

* ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'': [[http://twokindscomic.com/archive/?p=543 Eventually confirmed]] [[LongestPregnancyEver after nearly four years of hints]]: As an apparent result of [[DeusExMachina divine intervention]], [[PettingZooPeople feline Keidrian]] Flora is pregnant with human Trace's child. Though it's later implied that the real Deus Ex Machina was the lack of such hybrid pregnancies up to now (i.e. Ephemural allowed Flora's pregnancy rather than stopping it).[[note]]After that we find out there's been another human/Keidrian all along.[[/note]]

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* In ''Fanfic/MyPainMyThrill'', Peach ends up pregnant by her secret lover Bowser. No one knew it was possible for koopas and humans to interbreed. The pregnancy isn't noticed until Peach suddenly goes into labor. Peach herself fell into a coma and was kept out-of-the-loop on [[spoiler:her son Bowser Jr.]] until three years afterwards.