Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
1007023735
Link(s) to full text
LAC copy
LAC copy
Author
Berg, Sandra J.(Sandra Joyce),1964-
Title
A physiological response to fatherhood : testosterone and cortisol decrease, and estradiol increases in men becoming fathers.
Degree
M. Sc. -- Queen's University, 2001
Publisher
Ottawa : National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, [2002]
Description
2 microfiches
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
Progress is being made toward understanding neuroendocrine pathways involved in mammalian social behaviour. Parental behaviour is an important component of social behavioural repertoires. To date, mammalian research has focused on parturient female rodents and sheep. Males that naturally show paternal behaviour are an attractive research model because their physiological responses to fatherhood are not simultaneously confounded by pregnancy and lactation. Recent evidence suggests that animal fathers that naturally provide parental care experience hormonal changes before and after the birth. The only published study of hormones in men becoming fathers also found that hormone concentrations responded to fatherhood. This thesis reports results from the first longitudinal endocrine study of men becoming fathers. 'Dads' provided saliva samples from recruitment through to 3 months postpartum. Control men provided age, circannual, and time-of-day comparable saliva samples. After controlling for circannual and circadian effects, 'dads' had lower testosterone, lower cortisol, and a higher proportion of samples with detectable estradiol than control men. Within 'dads', the proportion of estradiol samples that were detectable increased from the month before the birth to the month after. In each of 13 'dads' providing frequent saliva samples, testosterone was low during, and for the week after, the birth. In this highly motivated population of Canadian volunteers attending prenatal classes as couples, men experience hormonal changes associated with fatherhood. Hormones are involved in priming and elicitation of maternal behaviour. The hormones changing in men becoming fathers have known roles in maternal behaviour. Thus, in men, hormonal changes might also alter thresholds for the expression of paternal responses. If so, this study supports the hypothesis that there is a physiological response associated with involved fatherhood. Future research should examine the mechanisms which elicit hormonal changes within men becoming fathers and the functional role of the hormonal changes in men.
ISBN
0612593622
9780612593626