Postpartum Depression Linked to Boys?

Women who give birth to a boy may be at increased risk of
getting severe postpartum depression , according
to a French study.

But a Canadian expert on women's mental health says the conclusion is premature.

And the study author himself warns that the results may not apply to U.S.
women. "I believe that it would be dangerous to alarm all U.S. women about
[the potential mental health hazards associated with] boys' delivery,"
writes Claude de Tychey, PhD, professor of clinical psychology at the
Universite Nancy 2 in Nancy Cedex, France, in an email to WebMD.

Postpartum depression affects up to 15% of U.S. women in the month
to year after childbirth, according to the National Institutes of Health. Women
may refuse to eat, have sleep disturbances, frantic energy, or irrational
thoughts, among other symptoms. Dramatic shifts in hormone levels during pregnancy and after birth are thought to lead to the
problems.

Led by de Tychey, the research team evaluated 181 French women who had given
birth within the past two months at one of three hospitals in eastern France,
asking them about their adaptation to motherhood and their quality of life.

They assessed whether the women had depression and also evaluated their
quality of life after the baby was born, using a questionnaire that asked about
physical functioning, bodily pain, social functioning, and vitality, among
other dimensions.

Postpartum Depression and Sex of Baby

Of the 181 women, 124 had no depression, 40 had mild depression, and 17 had
severe depression.

When the researchers looked at the gender distribution in each group, they
found that the 124 mothers without depression gave birth fairly equally to boys
and girls (59 girls and 65 boys).

Of the 40 with mild depression, 24 had girls and 16 had boys.

Those with severe depression, however, were much more likely to give birth
to boys.  Of the 17 with severe depression, 13 had boys and four had
girls.

Even if the women didn't have depression after the birth, giving birth to a
boy was more likely to reduce the women's quality of life than giving birth to
a girl, according to the women's answers on the questionnaire. It didn't matter
if the woman was giving birth to her first born or her second baby.

The study is published in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical
Nursing.

Previous studies in other countries, including China, India, and Turkey,
have associated the birth of girls with a higher risk of postpartum depression,
the researchers note in the paper, perhaps because in some cultures boys are
preferred to girls.

De Tychey believes this is the first study to link postpartum depression to
boys. "We were very surprised by the findings because France has no open
gender preference," De Tychey writes in the email.

Second Opinion

A Canadian-based expert on women's mental health took issue with the study.
"They are talking about a total of 17 people with severe depression,"
says Gail Erlick Robinson, MD, director of the Women's Mental Health Program
and professor of psychiatry and obstetrics-gynecology at the University of
Toronto.

While the 17 women with severe postpartum depression were more likely to
have boys, she points out that the 40 women with mild depression were more
likely to have girls -- 24 of these women had girls, 16 had boys.

Regarding the finding that women who had boys reported lower quality of
life, even if they weren't depressed, Robinson says: "There is a big
difference between [lowered] quality of life and depression."

Taking care of a newborn boy may be more stressful, she acknowledges.

But she isn't convinced of a postpartum depression and gender link. "All
we have is a statistical finding in their study based on 17 people," she
says. "I think that's on pretty weak legs."

By Kathleen Doheny
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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