London, Aug 25 (IANS) If you think it is only women who suffer from an overwhelming urge to have children, think again. For, a new study has found even men suffer from the same syndrome --'baby fever'.


Gary Brase, associate professor of psychology at Kansas State University, and his wife Sandra, a project coordinator with the university's College of Education, researched for nearly 10 years on 'baby fever'.

Releasing their findings Brase said: "Baby fever is this idea out in popular media that at some point in their lives, people get this sudden change in their desire to have children.

"While it is often portrayed in women, we noticed it in men, too."

The couple's interest began in the subject shortly after the birth of their second child.

Sandra explained: "Although one hears about people having baby fever from friends, family and in the media, I was curious if there was a scientific explanation for the presence, or lack of it, in both women and men."

Researchers then carried out studies to understand people's desires, particularly the wish to have a baby.

Brase said: "Sometimes you may have a desire to have a baby, sometimes you have desires to have money or be famous or have sex. 'We asked people to tell us where these desires ranked.'"

It was found that baby fever existed in both genders.

But while women more frequently desired having a child than having sex, men more frequently desired sex than having a child.

"We found this kind of ironic because sex and having a baby are causally related," Brase said.

The Kansas State University research appears in the upcoming issue of Emotion, which is published by the American Psychological Association.