What 572 Australian men tell us about health before fatherhood

Preconception health is still treated as a women’s topic. New research using Australia’s largest study of male health asks a question nobody had answered here before: what does men’s health actually look like in the run-up to becoming a dad?

By Tristan Carter · Published in Health Education & Behavior, 2026

Folate, cutting back on alcohol, a check-up before trying to conceive. The advice is familiar and almost always addressed to women, even though a father’s health before conception can influence pregnancy and child outcomes too.

What the study did

The research draws on Ten to Men, the Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health and the largest all-male cohort in the country. Across four survey waves between 2012 and 2023, 11,811 adult men were asked whether they had become a father for the first time in the previous 12 months. 572 had.

The design is what makes this useful. Because the same men were surveyed repeatedly, their health could be read from the wave before they became fathers: a portrait of the preconception period itself, not fathers looking back and trying to remember.

A mixed report card

Men heading into fatherhood were not uniformly healthier or unhealthier than their peers. They did better on alcohol: 85.7% stayed within the guideline of no more than four standard drinks a day, against 80.3% of other men. Physical activity ran the other way, with only 55.9% meeting the moderate activity recommendation compared with 61.1% of other men. Diet was the weakest area of all, with fewer than half eating the recommended five serves of vegetables a day.

One nuance is worth explaining, because the chart alone can mislead. Vigorous activity looks like a win for future fathers, but these men were also considerably younger, at an average of 35.9 years against 42.3. Once the analysis accounted for age and other characteristics, the advantage reversed: they were actually less likely to meet both the moderate and vigorous activity guidelines. The alcohol finding survived that same adjustment, which is what makes it the more solid result.

They see a GP, just not for a check-up

The most striking finding is not about behaviour at all. Almost every soon-to-be father had seen a GP in the previous year, 93.7% of them, slightly more than other men. Access, on the face of it, is not the problem. But among the men who had consulted a GP, more than half said they never have a check-up.

The gap has causes on both sides. Men often do not feel comfortable raising pregnancy planning, and GPs report not feeling well equipped to start those discussions with male patients.

Why it matters

Around one in five of these men reported a mental health condition before becoming a father, a reminder that preconception care is not only about diet and exercise. Taken together, the findings make a practical case: men are reachable, they are already attending primary care, and the preconception window is a genuine opening for prevention rather than an afterthought.

A note on limits. The health data were self-reported, and the waves are pooled and compared at a single point rather than tracked forward. This shows associations, not proof of cause.