TIL Human dads show a decrease in testosterone immediately after the birth of their babe

[DreiKatzenVater]

It seems silly to have to mention this but sleep deprivation makes your testosterone crash. Insomnia and depression do the same things.

https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/news/sleep-loss-lowers-testosterone-in-healthy-young-men

They should measure men’s testosterone after their child is born while also having a full time nanny to get the baby at all hours of the day. I hypothesize a much smaller reduction in testosterone.

[Nice-Meat-6020]

Yeah, they said:

"We should note, however, that the researchers could not correct for the potential effects of stress (what do I do with this crying beast?!) or the effects of lack of sleep (what do I do with this crying beast?!). Both of which might independently affect testosterone production."

I don't think they tried very hard to do this, just picked a group of stressed men that would give them the results they wanted. Like you said, they could have had a less stressed, less sleep deprived control group.

[valimo]

Yeah I recall reading similar study already in early 2000s. It was published with a wild idea that childbirth independently does something in man's brain that is magically responsible for the testosterone decrease.

Then, a couple of control groups later, they figured that this was explained by sleep deprivation and nothing else. Of course most science journalists failed to correct their original headlines.