Couvade syndrome dates back to 50 BC and can affect future parents, same-sex partners and even future grandmothers. Studies show that parents have symptoms, but the condition is not officially classified as a medical disorder.
Symptoms may appear suddenly. Nausea, severe fatigue, numbness in the arms, tender skin on the arms and chest, a general feeling of being unwell or feeling different.
Many mothers who have already experienced one will be able to recognize these symptoms. It turns out that they also affect future parents and non-pregnant partners during the gestation period. They are caused by a little-known condition called Couvade syndrome.
“The best way to describe it is as a empathic pregnancy”, explains gynecologist and obstetrician Catherine Caponero, from the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, United States, a specialist who has already observed some cases of the syndrome.
“Basically, it happens when a partner who is not pregnant experiences symptoms of pregnancy, even though they are not biologically expecting a baby,” explains the doctor.
More and more investigations indicate that this syndrome is more common than previously thought. And some scientists wonder whether its unusual symptoms might lead us to rethink how having children affects both parents.
The symptoms
Couvade syndrome can affect future parents, same-sex partners and even future grandmothers who live with the pregnant person and are closely involved in their care, according to Caponero.
Symptoms include nausea and fatigue, back and tooth pain, mood changes and food cravingsin addition to weight gain. Its appearance mimics physical pregnancy and normally peaks during the first and third trimesters, disappearing after birth.
The incidence of a common—but unclassified—disease
Couvade can manifest itself in many ways and its definition is unclear. Therefore, estimates of its incidence vary widely. In one study, even 52% of North American fathers said they experienced signs of the syndrome during their wife’s pregnancy. Similar numbers were recorded in Jordan (59%) and Thailand (61%).
Other studies point to higher numbers in Poland and China, where seven out of 10 Prospective parents said they experienced symptoms of Couvade. Other investigations indicate that the prevalence may be lower in Sweden (20%) and Russia (35%).
Research indicates that Couvade is a relatively common syndrome, but is not officially classified as a medical disorder, according to professor emeritus of psychology Ronald Levant, from the University of Akron, in Ohio, United States.
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the United States Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — two official instruments used by doctors around the world — do not recognize Couvade, and few medical reference manuals mention it.
“I think I learned a phrase about it in medical school,” says Caponero. “Even in our clinical resources, There’s not a lot of information.” Currently, this little-studied syndrome remains largely a mystery.
“Its mechanism is not well known”, according to psychologist Daniel Singley, director of the Men’s Excellence Center, in San Diego, United States. “Maybe it’s a way of sublimating and dealing with emotional issues, maybe there’s a neurobiological basis. I don’t think you know.”
But most researchers agree that Couvade syndrome is “multifactorial.” Involves biological and psychological componentsaccording to Levant.
Men “shocking”, not even Christ was born
The word Couvade comes from the French verb broodwhich means “shock.” The English anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917) was the first to popularize the term, in 1865. He used it to describe a practice that, to him, seemed peculiar.
While traveling through the interior of the Basque Country in Spain, Tylor observed, among the peasants, men lying in bed with their newborn babies.
The expression was derogatory and intended to ridicule those men, according to medical anthropologist Richard Powis, from the University of South Florida, in the United States.
“It’s that general idea of men behaving like women,” she explains.
But Couvade remonta a 50 a.C., when future parents from Corsica, Cyprus and the Iberian Peninsula lay in bed, expressed labor pains or imitated aspects of their babies’ birth. Sometimes they wore their partner’s clothes. Later, anthropologists would describe observing similar rituals practiced around the world, by groups in the West Indies, South America, and East Asia.
They were performed as adoption rites, as Tylor wrote in 1889: “Among certain tribes, Couvade is the legal way in which a father recognizes a son as hisIn other cases, it was believed that the ritual diverted the attention of malevolent spirits from the mother, attracting them to the father.
Therefore, according to Powis, academics at the time — mostly wealthy men from the Victorian elite — considered Couvade to be an intentional set of rituals practiced by new fathers in “exotic places”, to keep the pregnant partner and the unborn child in good health and good spirits.
But, when they turned their gaze to their own Western industrial societies, between the mid and late 20th century, Couvade began to take on another connotation, as “psychological pathology”, according to Powis. In other words, an involuntary experience of pregnancy symptoms, with biological and psychosomatic bases.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), anthropologist Mary Douglas (1921-2007) and other researchers have presented several psychoanalytic theories for the syndrome.
“One of them was that men imitated pregnancy on purpose, to steal your partner’s attention”, highlights Powis.
Another perspective argued that Couvade’s symptoms were rooted in subconscious envywith future parents perceiving their unborn child as a competitor for their partner’s attention.
Complex emotions
Currently, most experts agree that there is a psychological aspect to Couvade and that its symptoms likely arise due to the stress experienced by the partner as a future father, even if he himself is not expecting a child.
“Having a baby is one of the most significant developmental events of adulthood,” explains clinical psychologist Kevin Gruenberg, founder of the nonprofit Love, Dad in California.
“Sometimes it can feel very stressful and overwhelming, so Couvade can be a way to reflect this important transformation that is happening,” he says.
The postpartum period brings more stress for both parents, such as lack of sleep and the incessant demands of caring for a newborn.
“There are also different aspects of sexual identity, physical intimacy and family logistics,” according to Singley.
About one in 10 new parents develops prenatal or postpartum depression. Up to 18% of men report high levels of anxiety during this time and 7% experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies show that if a new mother has postpartum depression, her partner is twice as likely to also develop this disorder. But some of the psychological changes may, in fact, have a Freudian component.
“I see a lot of parents talk about elements of their experience, like jealousy over their newborn baby, mourning the life they had before, or needing to share a partner,” explains Singley.
Show support
Experts indicate that the futures parents involuntarily experience similar symptoms to those of pregnancy as a subconscious and deeply rooted form of empathy for their pregnant partners.
This is a reflection of “deep emotional involvement and identification with the pregnant partner”, according to Levant.
In fact, Couvade syndrome often appears side by side with intentional supportive actions. If a pregnant partner develops a sudden aversion to the sight and smell of meat, the partner may decide to become vegetarian as a way of showing support.
If the pregnant person reduces physical exercise and spends more time resting on the couch, their partner may do the same to keep them company. Powis compares the symptoms with people who, historically, performed Couvade rituals.
“My definition of Couvade is that it happens when someone does something during pregnancy or after birth to help support pregnant people,” she explains. “When we call it a syndrome, we turn it into a pathology. But there’s nothing wrong with it, nor is it particularly unique. It’s just human empathy.”
“Ultimately, we’re talking about how people take care of each other and what happens when they do,” according to Powis.
Hormone exchange
There are also indications that Couvade may have a biological basis which stimulates the intentional and psychological factors that follow. In one of the most extensive studies carried out to date, psychologist Robin Edelstein, from the University of Michigan, in the United States, conducted a series of experiments to examine changes in hormonal levels in couples, both homosexual and heterosexual, who were expecting their first child.
Pregnant women showed a large prenatal increase in cortisol, progesterone, estradiol, and testosterone. Men, on the other hand, had notable drops in these last two hormones, which is not surprising, according to Edelstein.
“A decreased testosteronein theory, guides men to care for the baby and invest in the family, rather than looking for new partners or increasing aggression,” she explains. “And lower estradiol levels may make caregiving easier.”
When investigating couples three and six months after giving birth, fathers who had greater prenatal falls said they had contributed more to household chores and baby care — something confirmed by their partners, when questioned separately.
“Hormonal changes seem to appear first, which predicts greater investment” in postpartum care, says Edelstein. Therefore, hormonal changes may explain part of Couvade’s symptoms, according to the researcher.
The reduction in testosterone and estradiol levels, for example, is associated with weight gain in menand estradiol is related to depression. But what triggers these changes remains to be clarified.
This conclusion is confirmed by several neurological studies, which show that after the birth of a child. A 2024 study, for example, found that gray matter volume decreases in fathers after birth, just as it does in mothers. It is a way of synaptic pruning which reinforces the areas of the brain relevant to interpreting baby’s signals, bonding and providing care.
Men with greater reductions said they spent more time with their newborns and felt a stronger bond, which reflects a successful adjustment to fatherhood.
Psychological adjustments
Taking into account all the elements at play, Singley rejects the common idea that Couvade would simply be a conscious or subconscious mirroring of the pregnant partner’s symptoms.
“It’s a very old-fashioned way of looking at the experience of fatherhood,” he argues.
For Singley, the partner “also goes through a series of psychological, social, neurological, endocrine and interpersonal adjustments, because he is also a person”.
For future fathers, it can be more difficult to accept these adjustments, given social expectations about how men should behave.
“They might think, ‘I’m a man, I can’t be depressed — no, that’s weakness. I’m a father, I need to look impeccable and provide for my family,'” explains Singley.
In fact, he argues, they need to be allowed to say: “I may have migraines, I may have muscle tension, I may have gastrointestinal problems. I may feel that this weight is on me.”
