Post-partum crap

I just read this essay about male post-partum depression http://www.newsweek.com/id/192463 and I'm still trying to figure out if I think this guy is just selfish, or if he's a little too in touch with his feminine side, or if I'm just a bitch.

It reminds me of years ago, when I was working in radio, and one of my male co-hosts brings up the topic of male menopause. So I let him go on and on for a while about how hard it is and how the men need this and that and should be treated gently and get time off of work and then I finally say what I'm pretty sure 90% of our audience is thinking (and our audience was like 90% women) "Tell you what; when you carry the kids around then you can HAVE menopause. And though I haven't experienced it myself, from what I understand it's not all that fun and not something you guys should be trying to take over."

OK, maybe I am a bitch.

(When we got off the air this guy LOST IT and yelled at me "I just wanted to have a f**king conversation about menopause WITHOUT bringing up women!" Yeah, I know.)

Aren't things like post-partum depression and menopause controlled by hormones? It's been a while since I had a science class and I get that girls aren't 100% estrogen and boys aren't 100% testosterone and there's a lot of gray area but, in this guys' case at least, why not just call it what it really is: mourning for the loss of his former life.

You know why? THAT sounds too selfish.

And I think that some guys (not necessarily this guy, I never said that!) think women use post-partum depression and various other medically-named things to get out of stuff. They think we feel a little sad and slap a medical-sounding name on it so we can get away with more. Or less. Like lying in bed after you've had a baby and the laundry is piling up and the dirt is piling up and people keep showing up and you just can't face them is a FANTASTIC way to spend the day.

And maybe this guy really did have post-partum depression. Female hormones are strong enough to make an entire sorority house menstruate at the same time; pulling one unsuspecting guy into post-partum depression was probably a piece of cake.