OK, I have a dirty little secret.  I listen to conservative talk radio when I drive home from work (then I take a shower with bleach )  While I was listening to conservative talk radio host Michael Medved today, he actually enlightened me to a story, and I agreed with him.  Mr. Medved discussed a story he read  in Newsweek about a new father’s struggle with his own postpartum depression.  That’s right, the newly coined Male Postpartum Depression.  Mr. Medved went on about how absurd and whiny this father sounded.

I would never be one to make light of a real mental illness, but this Male Postpartum Depression business is rather ridiculous.  In the Newsweek article new daddy whines about how his life is changed forever because of junior:   “But not 48 hours after we returned home with our boy, a truth dawned on me with shocking force: my life was gone. Movies, sleeping, long showers—all gone.” I laughed so hard when I read this, that milk came out of my nose, and I don’t drink milk.    Movies, sleeping and long showers made up new daddy’s previous life?  How sad.  I can relate though.  I once was called in to work over- time during American Idol, and I needed an extra dose of Zoloft just to get through the shift.  True story.

There is no doubt that bringing a newborn into your home will rock your world.  It is an adjustment, and it ain’t easy.  It may even be harder for a new dad to adjust because they have not bulit up the bond a mom has with her child the minute she finds out she is pregnant.  But I am willing to draw the line on the diagnosis of Male Postpartum Depression.  As new daddy whines in Newsweek:   “I fell into a well of depression so deep I wasn’t even aware of it. It was only years later, after I spoke to a psychotherapist, that I learned I was experiencing male postpartum depression.” New daddy, you did not know you were suffering from Male Postpartum Depression, because it does not exist.  Mr. Psychotherapist made it up.

The final quote from new daddy that made me call a “Code Bullshit” on the diagnosis of Male Postpartum Depression was this: ” I ceded nearly complete authority to my wife, then blamed both her and my son for my feelings of loss and insignificance. I took on every parental responsibility with sucked-up reluctance on the outside and contempt on the inside. My wife seemed to consider me selfish and irresponsible. She was tired, she’d say, of parenting both of us. Even when the bickering ended, the wounds never healed. Our marriage took a fatal hit.” For the love of God, that’s not Male Postpartum Depression, that’s Caveman Syndrome (oh, I made up a new diagnosis.  I think I will trademark it).  New daddy wasn’t depressed.   He was resentful that he had to face responsibility at home.  He was not king of the castle anymore, junior was.  I am sad that the marriage failed, but my guess is new mommy is better off without new daddy.  To blame the end of a marriage on an infant is a cop out.  New daddy should go back to Mr. Psychotherapist.

Postpartum Depression is a real diagnosis, and it is serious and it can be deadly.  It has a hormonal and physiological basis.  The changes a woman’s body goes through during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum recovery is staggering.  This is why this bogus Male Postpartum Depression diagnosis is insulting to me.  Of course men go through a lot when they become fathers.  It is undeniable that they face extreme stress and anxiety.  But please do not call that adjustment Male Post Postpartum Depression.  Men, find your own name like : “Male Resentment of Newborn Crying During MythBusters  .”, or ” Male Angry That Seed of His Loins Makes Noise at Night.” or “Male Sad That Female Won’t Make Sexy Time With Him After Pushing 8 Pound Infant Out of Her Vageen.”

There is a vast gender disparity in health care allocation across the globe.  Women suffer greatly due to inability to access healthcare.  So let’s not let men and medicine  hijack a uniquely female diagnosis, that turns even more attention away from women.

RR