I know someone who is pregnant.  She (unlike yours truly) is very, very good at being pregnant.  No random vomiting whilst grocery shopping.  No bizarro cravings for  out-of-season fruit.  No demands for an impossible one-in-the-morning- chocolate chip mint ice cream sundae with extra hot fudge sauce.  Not a lot of weight gain and not even any strech marks.  Anyhow, while this woman is the ultimate in pregnancy chic, her husband didn’t fare so well the last time ’round.  And now that numero 3 is expected, she shared with me the concern about what happened the last time… HE had all the symptoms.  Oh yes.  Craved apple juice.  Developed acne.  Gained weight.  Oy.

So I did a bit of online digging just to find out how wacked this whole thing was… and maybe it’s too soon to stamp the nutbar ink on his head.  This, according to an iparenting site:

(see the full article at www.pregnancytoday.com/reference/articles/malepg.htm)

In the first two studies of their kind, Canadian researchers Dr. Katherine E. Wynne-Edwards, a professor of biology at Queen’s University, and Dr. Anne Storey, a professor of psychology at Memorial University, examined the saliva and blood samples of expectant fathers for hormonal changes at different times during their partners’ pregnancies, typically beginning testing at 10 weeks and ending a month after birth.

What Drs. Wynne-Edwards and Storey found were significant changes in the men’s levels of the following hormones: prolactin, a female hormone involved in milk production and possibly maternal and paternal behavior; estradiol, a principal form of the female hormone estrogen; cortisol, a hormone related to stress responsiveness; and testosterone, a male hormone associated with aggression.

The official name for this kind of bizarro-ness is “Couvade Syndrome”.  For someone like me, who was a living pregnant nightmare, if my significant other would have started yelling for raw green peppers  at two a.m. or if he could walk inside a house and demand (from 30 feet from the fridge) for the occupants to dispose of the broccoli that was hiding there and causing such a stink, or if he needed help with the swelling of his ankles or assistance putting on his shoes… Well… let’s just say there would be a serious need for an anesthetist.  (Or a healthy dose of rat poison). 

Just for comparison:

Very Cute→              Not Very Cute:→          

(good luck, mike.)

 Your Juicy Writer website of the day comes with a pic of Jack Kerouac’s typewriter… cool.  Anyhow, while you’re getting the words down, go look at www.nelsonagency.com.  It’s the site of literary agent Kristin Nelson and her blog was just given an award by predators & editors.  Lots of great info.  I’m a bit addicted….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 6:53 am. You can leave a comment below.