While men can’t lay claim to morning sickness, sleepless nights or swollen feet but researchers say that fathers-to-be do suffer at least one symptom of pregnancy.
Research shows that men’s hormones go into a spin in the months before becoming a parent for the first time. Fathers-to-be suffer from at least one symptom of pregnancy – a dip in two main hormones. A fall in testosterone take makes men less aggressive and more caring. And a drop in oestradiol which helps prepare them for new responsibilities
The changes also help men prepare for bonding with their babies – as well as stop them from straying.
In these most detailed study of its kind, US researchers measured hormone levels in 29 couples at four points during pregnancy. All four hormones – testosterone, cortisol, progesterone and oestradiol, a form of the sex hormone oestrogen – shot up in the women.
Amounts of testosterone and oestradiol fell in the men. Levels of the other two hormones did not change, the American Journal of Human Biology reports.
The surge in women’s hormones in pregnancy has been well-researched but this study is the first to look in detail at men’s hormones.
