A concept I've had stuck in my head for a while is an experimental facility where scientists are testing a procedure that makes humans produce and lay eggs. After a lot of trial and error they've got it down pretty well. The test subjects produce around 6-10 eggs a month in line with what used to be their menstrual cycle. The eggs are just a bit bigger than chicken eggs. Not super pleasant to push out but doable without much fuss. The whole project is viewed as a scientific triumph.
But what the news crews and scientific prize judges don't see are all of the poor souls who were in the first few rounds of testing before the procedure was perfected.
Some produce an egg every hour, their bellies filling quickly if they don't spend their whole day pushing them out. In the early stages they hadn't figured out how to standardize egg size so these unlucky subjects go from tiny grape sized eggs to eggs the size of grapefruit with no warning. Some become so fed up and exhausted from constantly birthing that they refuse to push for days despite their stomachs swelling and cramping. Just a day or two and they will appear full term with a human baby. Eventually the pressure will be too much and they will be forced to push. The backed up eggs will come shooting out of their holes much too fast making them scream. But once they start it's almost impossible to stop until most of the pressure has eased. At that point there will still be eggs inside and they will have to heave and strain, desperate to empty their overtaxed womb, knowing that even now a new egg is forming.
Others produce an egg less often, once every few days or so, but the eggs are much too big. Most are about as big around as a newborn's head. These unlucky subjects are forced to experience the agony of childbirth multiple times a week or, if they refuse to push, for hours at a time when they finally are forced to birth the built up eggs. The cruel irony is that the drugs used to induce egg production make their holes much more resilient meaning they stay tight never getting stretched out and lose no matter how many births they endure.
However, even they are fortunate in comparison to the most miserable test subject in the facility. They were one of the first to undergo the procedure and their body had a unique and unfortunate reaction. At first it seemed like it was working well. They produced a small clutch of fist sized eggs. Then on their next cycle one of the eggs grew extremely fast. Overnight it had grown larger than a full term baby. Their belly was stretched horribly, streaked with angry red stretch marks from being forced to expand much too fast. The scientists were baffled. They tried having the subject lay their eggs. They managed to pass all the regular sized eggs but it soon became apparent that the big egg would never be able to pass through their hips. It was completely stuck.
This subject is still in the facility now. They follow a miserable routine. Over the month their already overfull stomach swells until they finally feel the tell tale spasms of contractions. They squat and push, slowly laying 6 or so eggs the size of their fist. It's hard, agonizing work, each hard shell stretching them open and dragging against their sensitive walls.
Then comes the worst part. The weight of the giant egg settles into their hips. They push desperately, working the tip down into their birth canal. Several long hard pushes later the tip will be visible parting their lips, peaking out into the world. They will labor and push for hours and the egg will inch out of them, it's huge girth stretching their hole beyond its limit. Then, as it always does, the egg will stop moving. No matter how frantically they push they cannot move the egg out another millimeter. It is caught in their hips, too wide to pass through the pelvic opening. They will rock their hips and moan and cry in bitter frustration as their tortured hole spasms around the gargantuan egg.
Finally the staff takes pity on them and comes to their aid. The subject struggles and screams, pleading to be let to push for just a bit longer, they can do it this time, this time they'll get it out, it's almost there! please don't push it back in again!! But their pleas fall on deaf ears. They are held down and the giant egg is slowly pushed back into their womb. They howl in pain and cry with bitter frustration and the rough shell slides back inside. The terrible weight settles back into their perpetually stretched womb and the cycle begins again.