[syntaxing]

> And the men that had spent longer looking after babies showed the largest drops in testosterone. Those that shared a bed with their infants also had lower levels.

Dad here. Maybe…it’s the lack of sleep? Involved fathers tend to have less sleep.

[bitshiftfaced]

Parents also tend to gain weight, and higher BMI is associated with a decline in T.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3809034/

[benhurmarcel]

Yes being a parent would tend to correlate to a drop in physical activities and sports

[kyleee]

Do BBC have low T?

[IAmBroom]

I'm not going to google that to find out what you meant.

[kyleee]

It’s a bbc article you gross person

[mbac32768]

Yes, chronically disturbed sleep is the obvious confounder and is well known to drop T and explains the observed small changes a lot better.

[_DeadFred_]

If human babies actually evolved to be the terrors they are in order to lower fathers testosterone levels/chill them out that would be wild.

[Henchman21]

Or, just gonna put this out there... you have successfully fathered a child. A drop-off in T seems normal -- you've done your job and now you care for that child and lose the drive to father a significant number more. You accomplished your biological purpose and slowly slide on into death over the next number of decades. So it is. We are not immortals and the phases of life should not be avoided out of selfish vanity. Easy to say online, eh? :)

[verteu]

Several of the studies described changes in hormones before the child was born.

[davorak]

Extra time commitment, and therefor missing some sleep, can start before the baby is born.

[ludicrousdispla]

Reminds me of when I would stay up late ironing my wife's maternity BDUs.

[herewulf]

With or without starch? Please tell me you were taking care of boots as well!

[ludicrousdispla]

I don't recall using starch on the BDUs, I might have polished the boots once or twice, but that was just over twenty years ago, so who knows.

[IncreasePosts]

If you cosleep with your 8 month pregnant wife she might not be sleeping well and by proximity you may not be sleeping well.

[WarOnPrivacy]

> Several of the studies described changes in hormones before the child was born.

For me, sleep dropped off right after I got the "I'm pregnant" phone call. I'd only known this girl for [time it takes a baby to be detected] days.

[mbac32768]

Given this is "BBC Future" let me guess, barely above significance and n=16?

[goku12]

I'm unfamiliar with the subject. What's the problem with BBC Future?

[joemazerino]

On the right line. Lower sleep, higher coping (bad diet, alcohol etc) would lead to T destruction. Not surprised BBC didn't connect the dots here.

[e40]

Evolutionarily this makes sense. Lower testosterone means less carousing, and better fatherhood.