Sex & Gender Paternal hormones and masculinity

Angela

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See:

https://aeon.co/essays/swedens-hands-on-dads-and-the-hormones-of-fatherhood

The title is: Latte Papas; Sweden's hands-on dads represent an alternate male form forged by lowered testosterone and the potent hormones of attachment.

It's an article by a journalist, not a scientific paper, but it does reference some research being done in the field.

"A 2011 longitudinal study of 624 Filipino men showed evening testosterone dropping by a median of 34 per cent in the first month after becoming fathers (the most extreme case saw a drop of 75 per cent). Levels of oxytocin, the so-called ‘cuddle hormone’, almost double in fathers between the time the mothers become pregnant and the first months of fatherhood. Prolactin, the hormone that triggers lactation in women, was almost a fifth higher in fathers of infants than in non-fathers. Fatherhood also physically alters the brain. In a 2014 study, researchers scanned men’s brains in the first month after their children were born, and then again after the fourth month. It turned out that gray matter grew in areas linked to reward, attachment and complex decision-making."

Naturally, given what passes for journalism nowadays, there are no citations, so I can't check the studies.

Supposedly, there is a group of scientists studying Swedish fathers to see if the Swedish system of almost gender equal parenting has produced even more of this effect.

I don't know what to think of this. I do think that something happens when you first hold and start caring for your infant which is life altering in ways that are unexpected, and I think that the more time a father spends caring for his children, the closer the bond. Whether that translates to less testosterone, and whether that would have personality wide effects, I don't know.
 
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Uvnäs-Moberg describes oxytocin as the opposite of the fight-flight system. ‘It is the calm and connection system: you reduce your arousal, you become calm, and you become friendly and not so anxious, and also your blood pressure gets lower. Your need to be at the top of a hierarchy decreases, and you become more interested in social networking and other affairs. That may be good when your babies are small, but after five years you may regret '

Filipines and Sweden are quite opposite in masculine or feminine kind of society. Anyway you look at it, I think most people agree that an oxytocin boost would Duterte no harm[emoji6]
https://goo.gl/images/qNC8Dr


Sent from my iPad using Eupedia Forum
 
It all makes sense. Offspring is a goal of human life (and every living creature on earth), I would be shocked if even one research shows that having kids makes no hormonal changes in fathers.
 

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