I?ve had a bit of fun dissing men for their ability to blithely offer up a few thousand sperm,in a not unpleasant way, sit back and watch for nine? who?s kidding it?s ten? months, as their offspring gestates in someone else?s body, then, voila, they?re dads, and life goes on as usual.
Okay so they might worry more and get a tad bit less sleep, but they don?t undergo a complete physical, hormonal transformation like we martyrs women do.
Seems I was dead wrong. Because, according to this article, men?s bodies do experience change when they become fathers.
Namely, their levels of testosterone drop.
A study, conducted in the Phillipines, tested 600 men before and after becoming fathers.
The declines in testosterone were more than double in the men who were fathers compared to the men who hadn?t procreated.
And the men who spent time, a minimum of three hours per day, interacting with and caring for their children, reading Goodnight Moon was mentioned but I?m fairly sure that?s not required, registered the lowest levels of testosterone. The most steep drops in testosterone were noted during the child?s first month.
It?s still not known how much, or how often, these levels fluctuate. One researcher wonders if the father?s levels increase while he is at work, then decrease again on weekends.One test was cited where testosterone levels increase after a man is divorced.
So much of this article fascinated me, but the lines that really got me, reeled me right in and had me shouting, ?Amen sista? was this one:
?The study, experts say, suggests that men?s bodies evolved hormonal systems that helped them commit to their families once children were born. It also suggests that men?s behavior can affect hormonal signals their bodies send, not just that hormones influence behavior. And, experts say, it underscores that mothers were meant to have child care help.?
Did you hear that? ?.?it underscores that mothers were meant to have child care help.?
I like hearing that men are biologically adapted to fatherhood. Why should it surprise me, Oh I don?t know, really, probably because our society, as a whole, is always trying to say that kids need their mommies while daddies are optional.
And, having my baby daddy stuck on the other side of the pond trying to ?sort out his Green Card? gives me a whole new perspective on this. Could all that time away from his family be putting extra hair on my husband?s chest? Not that he needs any more, but, just wondering.
Another fascinating aspect of all this was brought up by Dave, in the comment section over at the original article:
Dave asks: ?The big question left out: how does your testosterone producing mechanism know you?ve become a dad? Especially so quickly. The implications of discovering that process opens huge doors for explanation for other things beyond the science of why we mate and make families.?
What do you think of this theory? Does any of this surprise you, please you, or set off your BS radar?
image from Barbara Murdter, from flickr creative commons
Source: http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/9142011fatherhood-lowers-testosterone/
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