I'm a person and I have the right to have my own biological child," Thomas Beatie, of Bend, Oregon, said in excerpts from the Oprah show which aired on April 1st.

Skeptics questioned whether the story was an April Fool's hoax, but the Chicago-based talk show said Winfrey interviewed Beatie, his wife Nancy and their obstetrician along with friends of the couple. Beatie also did an interview with People magazine.

Beatie and his wife Nancy recount how she was unable to conceive because of a prior hysterectomy, according to the excerpts.

"If Nancy could get pregnant, I wouldn't be doing this," Beatie said.

The Hawaii-born Beatie, 34, related his struggles with various doctors along with family and friends in a letter published last week by The Advocate, a magazine for gays.

He had chest reconstruction surgery and began taking testosterone, wrote Beatie, who was formerly Tracy Lagondino.

Upon deciding to have a child, he halted bimonthly hormone injections and resumed menstruating, then artificially inseminated himself with anonymous donor sperm from a sperm bank. A first attempt failed.

"When my brother found out about my loss, he said, 'It's a good thing that happened. Who knows what kind of monster it would have been,'" Beatie recalled.

A second attempt was successful, and he expects to deliver a girl around July 3.

"Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire," Beatie wrote.