There are a myriad experiences to be gained either way. Quite often you can get a bleed-over effect with gay people. For example, a young man may find he has got gay tendencies. One of the reasons may be that he lived his life as a female in a previous incarnation. Bleed-over effects are not as rare as you might expect. All things being equal, there are advantages and disadvantages to living as male or female on this planet.

So, to state the blatantly obvious; if you want to know about child bearing, you will have to live your life as a woman, even if you was a man in a previous life. It really is of no consequence as far as spirit is concerned. If you need to know about life as a soldier, you would normally have to be a man. These things are extremely common and are part of your perfection scheme.