What Happens to Your Brain When You Become a Dad?

Sanjay Gupta· Host0:00

[gentle music] Welcome to Chasing Life. You know, I have taken on a lot of different roles in my life. I've been a son, I've been a husband, a neurosurgeon, a journalist, but you know, when I really think about it, I think being a dad to my three daughters is the most important role of my life. No question about it. Because I think no matter how busy things have become at times, that is the role that I always come back to. That's the role that seems to anchor everything else in my life. And, and my girls have gotten older now. Two of them are out of the house. I got one more who's starting her senior year now in high school. They've started to move on with their life, and as a result, I think it's really made me reflect on fatherhood in a new way. I think when you're in it, life is just so procedural. You're getting through one day to the next, sometimes just one hour to the next. But at this stage of life, you get a chance to reflect, and I've been thinking a lot more about how being a dad has changed me. How am I different, not only emotionally, but maybe even ways that I'm not even fully aware of. And my guest today has been thinking about this for a long time as well, has been studying this for years. Dr. Darby Saxbe is a psychologist at USC who has been researching what happens to men as they become dads. How do their brains change? How do their hormones change? What happens to their mental health and to their other relationships? She's the author