Within the broader genre of gay romance, mpreg is a category of its own, and one that seems to evoke strong emotions. Readers either love mpreg or hate it, with little middle ground in between. What is it about this subgenre that makes readers feel so strongly?

Mpreg, in case you didn’t know, stands for male pregnancy. It’s a fictional world where men, usually omegas, can get pregnant. Mpreg can take place in a shifter world with all kinds of animals, or in a non-shifter world, which is often called omegaverse. There are usually alphas and omegas, and there can be betas as well, depending on the world the author created.

Issues With Mpreg

This immediately brings us to a first argument for mpreg haters: how is it possible that men can get pregnant? Well, my argument would be that it’s just as possible as vampires, incubi, shifters, fae, or any supernatural being writers have created. It’s called fiction for a reason, so a little suspense of disbelief is necessary.

Some readers have argued that they want more of an explanation of how the pregnancy is possible since men lack the necessary internal anatomy. Again, details like that don’t bother me because paranormal authors rarely explain how the biology of a vampire works, beyond what’s necessary for their story. In my mpreg books, I’ve simply “created” omegas who have a womb. The rest, I leave to the readers’ imagination.

The pregnancy itself is another thing that divides readers. Some love reading about it, because it makes them feel all warm and fuzzy. Or they love seeing fictional men deal with the same thing pregnant women struggle with in a daily basis. A little glee there is a healthy thing, maybe? Others don’t find pregnancy sexy at all, and there’s certainly an argument to be made there.

What Readers Love Most About Mpreg

But to me, all of this doesn’t hit the core of what I love about mpreg, and what readers have told me they love. In a Facebook group for mpreg lovers, I did a little poll and asked what readers loved most about mpreg. Here’s the top three answers:

1. The alpha/omega dynamics: alphas are, as their name implies, usually alpha males. They’re strong, proud, and highly protective of their mate. Omegas are physically weaker and they’re more nurturing and soft. The dynamics between these two is super romantic and sexy as well.
2. Knotting: this is one of those terms that’s often confusing to non-mpreg readers. Knotting is taken from the animal world, and it means the alpha’s dick swells after sex into a knot and stays that way for a while to ensure pregnancy in the omega. It’s super, super hot, let’s leave it at that, haha.
3. The Omega’s Heat: another classic mpreg element. Every so many days, in my books ninety days, an omega goes into heat, which is his fertile period. It’s also often a period of intense sexual lust, so it usually results in some spicy scenes if you know what I mean.

Honorable mentions were the overprotective alpha, being able to recognize a mate by his smell, and the claim bite (most common in shifter mpreg).

Some Mpreg Recommendations

Because I started out writing contemporary (and I still do), not all of my readers were too sure whether they would like my mpreg books. But so far, all that did turned out to love my books, and started reading more mpreg books. If you want to give mpreg a chance, there are plenty of great authors to chose from. Leta Blake’s Slow Heat is a classic, A.M. Arthur’s Breaking Free series is one of my faves, then there’s the queen of mpreg Susi Hawke, the phenomenal Piper Scott, and of course, you could try my books, Alpha’s Sacrifice and Alpha’s Submission 🙂

I hope you’ll give mpreg a try. You’ll find it’s a super fun genre, with all heat levels ranging from sweet to super steamy (that would be me, haha), and a whole lot of fascinating stories!