The Making of a Modern Dad

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It takes a lot more than testosterone to make a father out of a man.
by PsychologyToday.com
More on this in Health & Fitness
Messages for Men at Different Stages of Life
Fatherhood: Challenges, Rewards and Surprises
Dads Can Experience Hormonal Changes?

"One of my first memories growing up was wishing that my father would
be home more," recalls Andrew Hudnut, M.D., a family doctor in Sacramento,
California. "I was 8, and we had just returned from a canoe trip. I
remember thinking, 'I don't want a bigger house or more money. I just want my
dad around.'"

When his wife gave birth, Hudnut arranged his practice so he could be
home to take care of his son, Seamus, two days a week; he sees patients on
the other three workdays. "It was a very natural transition," he reports.
"I'm grateful to have the opportunity my father never had."

Part of a new generation of men who are redefining fatherhood and
masculinity, Hudnut, who is 33, is unwilling to accept the role of
absentee provider that his father's generation assumed. With mothers often being
the breadwinners of the family, many young fathers are deciding that a
man's place can also be in the home—part-time or even full-time.

According to census figures, one in four dads takes care of his
preschooler during the time the mother is working. The number of children who are
raised by a primary-care father is now more than 2 million and counting. By
all measures, fathers, even those who work full-time, are more involved in
their children's lives than ever before. According to the Families and Work
Institute in New York City, fathers now provide three-fourths of the
child care mothers do, up from one-half 30 years ago.

Is father nurture natural?
Many men and women wonder if all of this father care is really natural.
According to popular perceptions, men are supposedly driven by their
hormones (primarily testosterone) to compete for status, to seek out
sex and even to be violent—conditions hardly conducive to raising kids. A
recent article in Reader's Digest, "Why Men Act As They Do," is subtitled
"It's the Testosterone, Stupid." Calling the hormone "a metaphor for
masculinity," the article concludes, "...testosterone correlates with risk: physical,
criminal, and personal." Don't men's testosterone-induced chest-beating
and risk-taking limit their ability to cradle and comfort their children?

Two Canadian studies suggest that there is much more to masculinity
than testosterone. While testosterone is certainly important in driving men
to conceive a child, it takes an array of other hormones to turn men into
fathers. And among the best fathers, it turns out, testosterone levels
actually drop significantly after the birth of a child. If manhood
includes fatherhood, which it does for a majority of men, then testosterone is
hardly the ultimate measure of masculinity.

In fact, the second of the two studies,
which was recently published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, suggests that
fathers have higher levels of estrogen the well-known female sex hormone --
than other men. The research shows that men go through significant hormonal
changes alongside their pregnant partners changes most likely initiated
by their partner's pregnancy and ones that even cause some men to
experience pregnancylike symptoms such as nausea and weight gain. It seems
increasingly clear that just as nature prepares women to be committed moms, it
prepares men to be devoted dads.

"I have always suspected that fatherhood has biological effects in
some, perhaps all, men," says biologist Sue Carter, distinguished professor
at the University of Maryland. "Now here is the first hard evidence that men
are biologically prepared for fatherhood."

The studies have the potential to profoundly change our understanding
of families, of fatherhood and of masculinity itself. Being a devoted
parent is not only important but also natural for men. Indeed, there is evidence
that men are biologically involved in their children's lives from the
beginning.

Do men's hormones change in preparation for fatherhood?

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By Douglas Carlton Abrams

Last Reviewed: 24 May 2005