I think people have misunderstood the treatment of situational depression.
I think my illness fell into this category. It was triggered by experiencing a traumatic birth, and then a traumatic post natal period. Becoming ill and capacitated, and having a baby to deal with. The depression only increased as the the physical symptoms reduced and the baby wrangling got easier. In the end I was depressed because I couldn't work, I couldn't get out of bed or dressed some days, I didn't talk to people because I was too ashamed. I robotically performed motherhood with no emotional engagement, because I would sink under the pain if I opened up at all. I didn't hit crisis point till my DD was 3yo.
There was no difference in my actual situation before and after successful treatment. I still had a child, I still had the remaining physical issues (and always will), I still had the memory of my traumatic experience. What changed was my mental state. My interpretation of every single event that happened during each and every day.
I stopped thinking that my DD would be better off without me, and that all I could bring her was misery. I started thinking that she needed me and that I brought her happiness and security. Reality had not changed at all...just my perception of it. My behaviour was different, I interacted with people, took up hobbies again, began to functional at work etc.
So it isn't true that men or women cannot be taken out of the situation of being parents, because being parents isn't the problem. Being depressed parents is the problem. The depression, and perhaps more importantly depression maintaining behaviour CAN be taken out of the picture, leaving the parenting intact.
The single most astonishing thing for me about recovering from depression was that it doesn't just change your perception of the present, it changes your perception of the past. I actually dreaded getting well at one point, because I imagined the tsunami of guilt that would take me when I realised I could have been cured all along etc. How the hell could I ever make up for the first 3 terrible years of my DD's life?
Once I was well again, I didn't see those years as terrible. I mostly didn't see myself as guilty. The depression causes you to disproportionately remember the bad times, and normal brain function causes you (arguably) to focus on the good times. Things literally weren't actually as bad as I had thought! I didn't see myself as guilty, because I never chose or wanted to be depressed. I had sought help and not been successful, until I eventually was. I kept trying even though it hurt like hell and I kept being a Mum even though I couldn't breathe with the pain of it some days. Most days I can think back without crippling guilt.