Men’s Hormones Fluctuate During Pregnancy, Too

If you’re an expectant father, it has to be disconcerting if you begin to look as though you’re carrying the child―or if you start to have bouts of nausea, unusual food cravings, backaches, or disrupted sleep like your partner. This is called sympathetic pregnancy, and although it isn’t universally recognized as a disease or condition, it’s actually not uncommon. Another name for it is couvade syndrome. Couvade comes from the French verb couver, which means “to incubate.” No one knows for sure, but over the years, there has been a lot of speculation about what causes this phenomenon. Some theories propose that it’s a psychiatric disorder stemming from the man’s envy of the woman’s ability to give birth, or that symptoms are a psychosomatic reaction to unresolved emotions. Current research, however, shows that, over the duration of the pregnancy, men’s hormones can fluctuate in concert with the woman’s, which may account for the physical nature of symptoms. Read more…