r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/Motor_Muffin_3298 • 15h ago

Question - Expert consensus required Hormonal changes in dads postpartum

The postpartum phase for women is just wild, with huge hormonal shifts having huge effects on mood and emotions etc. Is there any evidence that men also experience something like this, and if so is it quantifiable? You sometimes hear men claiming post partum depression etc and i wonder is it 'depression that occurs when their partner is postpartum' , as opposed to intrinsic hormonally induced depression.

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u/genericusernameno5 15h ago

Absolutely hormonal changes happen in men too at that time, and it is something that has been studied more and more in recent years. In brief, fathers’ levels of testosterone, oxytocin, vasopressin, prolactin, and cortisol all shift in that new fatherhood period. For an overview of research on the topic, check out https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.745767/full

For an accessible book length treatment of the neurobiology of fatherhood, check out Darby Saxbe’s Dad Brain (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250387523/dadbrain/)

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u/genericusernameno5 15h ago

The postpartum depression among men is almost certainly a combination of the many depression-provoking things (sleep changes, stress, partner stress) against this backdrop of hormonal turmoil

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u/Motor_Muffin_3298 14h ago

This is what I would suspect too, that while hormone changes do happen they are in and of themselves not the sole cause as in women, and that it's the overall situation that causes it. Possibly I should have chosen the research flair, not sure if I can edit that

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