So, I was reading about post partum depression because I'm starting to think about children (in this world? Fucking lol) and I came across a bunch of articles on male postpartum depression.

First, let me clarify. I absolutely agree men can experience depression after the birth of a child. It's a huge, life altering event, and for some people, bound to have ramifications for their mental health.

But postpartum depression is a thing that women go through because they birthed a child. It is by definition, "after childbirth". It is triggered by the complex hormones that flood a woman's body after she gives birth. And I really hate that the term has been co-opted to say that "men experience postpartum too". No. They experience depression. They do not go through the hormonal fuckery that women go through after childbirth. They didn't go through childbirth!

Saying that men experience postpartum too is to me like saying if my dad has heart surgery that I'm also in recovery because his heart surgery made me depressed.

I understand why they use the same term because broadly it refers to the depression men experience after the birth of a child, but.. why is it only postpartum depression that has to be labelled with the specific type of depression it is? For example. Lots of men get depressed after losing a loved one. Or being broken up with. Or losing their job. Why aren't there specific names for those types of depression? Hell, depression in terminally ill patients doesn't even have its own name - it's just called depression.

Why is it that the medical condition that women experience due to actual physical changes in their body or the very unique experience they are going through, that gets it's own name BECAUSE it is DISTINCT from every other sort of depression - has to be co-opted by men to say, "men go through postpartum depression too!"?

I don't know if I'm being ridiculous. Please help me wrap my head around why this is a thing.