Does postnatal depression affect life insurance quotes?

[leavemealone25]

As above really - if it’s on your record do you find it very hard to get life insurance?

Also, how do you know if it’s PPD or just an understandable response to a really stressful few months?

(Think having one parent who had a stroke and a serious heart condition - so travelling to see them and living out of a suitcase every 1-2 weeks from baby being 20 weeks old or so; the other parent got drunk at Christmas and blew the family apart, it’s still not healed; a serious health scare for your baby which was very worrying from 6-16 weeks; a broken limb for yourself which the hospital missed and made life hard for you; an NCT group who sort of sacked you off because you weren’t able to go out partying due to breastfeeding and aforementioned travelling; not really having anyone around nearby for support; anxieties over baby’s milestones etc)

I have searched other threads and seen that it does, in fact, affect life insurance.

It will depend on the insurer. There are quite a few life insurers that accept a single incidence of mental illness in response to a life event as part of life and won't penalise you. There are others that are stricter.

I'm bipolar and have had documented mental health issues since I was 18. I was about 30 when I got my life insurance and in that time had quite an extensive history of mental illness. Some insurers refused to look at my application because of the long history and included history of self harm as a teenager and suicidal thoughts but no attempts throughout my struggles. I went through a specialist broker who found a company that took my whole history as bipolar so didn't separate out the individual episodes as separate things and as self harm and suicidal thoughts are part of my bipolar diagnosis they didn't add that as a separate issue. I do pay quite a bit more than my partner for the same cover. I've not reviewed it since as I had a severe episode after having my daughter and the process has put me off. I'd rather pay more than go through it all again as the cover went need hasn't changed!

Long and short is some companies might hold it against you but not all. From my research there are regular insurance brokers, those that deal with preexisting conditions or those with medical histories and finally specialist brokers. I would expect that for a single episode finding a broker that deals with people with medical histories would be sufficient for you, more extensive histories, like myself, would need the specialist brokers.

Thank you, that is very helpful.