In plain words
Testosterone is a sex hormone. It is found in higher amounts in most men and in smaller amounts in women. It affects muscle, energy, mood, and sex drive. Several studies show that fathers tend to have lower testosterone than men without children. Scientists are still working out what those changes mean. Lower testosterone is not a measure of how good a father someone is, and it is not a cause of depression on its own. Shifts in testosterone, cortisol, estradiol, and have been studied in fathers, but how they relate to depressive symptoms is inconsistent. Low mood that lasts or feels heavy is a reason to talk with a provider.
The deeper version
Testosterone is an androgen produced mainly in the testes in men and in smaller amounts in the ovaries and adrenal glands in women. Fatherhood has been associated with lower testosterone in a longitudinal study of Filipino men (Gettler and colleagues, PNAS, 2011) and in reviews of paternal hormone change (Berg and Wynne-Edwards, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2001). Shifts in cortisol, estradiol, and oxytocin are reported alongside. Associations with depressive symptoms in men are inconsistent, and whether partner hormone change drives postnatal mood is not established.
Where it comes up
- Partners get it too: paternal and partner postpartum depressionPostpartum: Mind
- What a partner does in the first weeksSupport, Home, and Village
What mothers here say about testosterone
No one has posted under this term yet.
Sources
- Gettler LT et al. — Longitudinal evidence that fatherhood decreases testosterone in human males, PNAS 2011
- Berg SJ, Wynne-Edwards KE — Changes in testosterone, cortisol, and estradiol levels in men becoming fathers, Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2001