The couvade syndrome

The couvade syndrome can be considered to be the psychosomatic equivalent of primitive rituals of initiation into paternity. Various symptoms have been described in the husbands of pregnant women with an incidence from 11% to 65%. The most common of these are: variations in appetite, nausea, insomnia and weight gain. Seventy-three couples with the women in the last month of pregnancy were given a questionnaire; as a reference group, 73 men without pregnant wives or children under 1 year of age were taken. An emotional involvement connected with pregnancy was reported in 91.78% of the men. This involvement was expressed as changes in sexual habits in 87.67% of cases, fear and anxiety in 36.98% and curiosity in 47.94%. With the exception of nausea, physical symptoms were less frequent in the men with pregnant wives than in those without pregnant wives. These data cannot confirm the existence of the couvade syndrome with its own physical symptoms but we think that some male experiences, which constitute a peculiar imaginary and behavioral reality of the father-to-be, do exist.