Mr Rigby said he was unprepared for the perils of fatherhood at the young age of 23, and it wasn't until he saw his daughter, Olive, that the realisation suddenly hit.

"Heading into it, I didn't really feel any connection to the foetus. Up until the day that she arrived, she was sort of intangible up until that point, and I was experiencing the pregnancy secondhand," Mr Rigby said.

"I would say, for a lack of a better term, I was not prepared at all."

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Olive was born in December of 2018 and in the early months of 2020, Mr Rigby said he began to experience symptoms of postnatal depression.

"I started to experience poor mental health symptoms which I had struggled with pre and during pregnancy, but it really sort of hit home early 2020," he said.

"I was raised to kick myself up the bum and keep going.

"That would follow a week or so of what I would call better behaviour but then there would always be a relapse.

"In early 2020 I went and spoke to my GP and got a postnatal depression diagnosis. That very much led to a conversation about how we move forward from this.

"While I've known people who have had mental health problems that they've dealt with in their own ways, I've never personally been professionally diagnosed with anything.

"I was unsure about how to move forward. So talking to my GP I ended up on medication and that progressed from there into a real internal struggle, on how to cope with this diagnosis."

Mr Rigby, from Invermay near Launceston, said he had been juggling with the back and forth struggle of dealing with depression.

"For a very long time you could have a very good period, but you could also have very low, low periods. I'm still very much on the journey per se as cliche as that sounds. I'm just trying to deal with it on a day-to-day basis."

Having made some good connections through fatherhood groups, Mr Rigby said it was great to have strong friendships where you can lean on someone and also offered advice to young inexperienced fathers and men going through postnatal depression.

"I'm a big believer in radical honesty. I think if you can sit there and you can say 'hang on, I'm not 100 per cent' and then start the questioning process from there, I think that's the first step.

"You've just got to be honest with yourself because it's the only way you'll be able to deal with what's going on.

"It's okay to not be okay, but it's also hard to deal with the fact that you don't think you're OK," he said.

Ahead of Men's Health Week from Monday, June 13 to Sunday, June 19, new research by Healthy Male revealed that denial, mistrust and the fear of being perceived weak were just some of the reasons men neglected their health.

The research asked men across Australia what kept them from seeking help with their health when they needed it.

Healthy Male chief executive Simon von Saldern, said a lot of men try to be in charge of many aspects of their lives, but it doesn't always extend to their health.

"The idea of being perceived as weak for what should be basic health-seeking behaviours is a stigma Healthy Male wants to eliminate," Mr von Saldern said.

The research found up to one third of men indicated they would not seek information about private health issues.

Health problems perceived as private include erectile dysfunction, chlamydia screening, urinary tract infections, and loss of libido. The main reasons for not seeking information about serious health issues included 'never talking about health issues' (13% of men surveyed) and 'not feeling comfortable talking about health' (13%).

Many chose to delay seeking help in the hope the issue would 'sort itself out', and only acted when it began to interfere with their daily life.

Mr von Saldern said the results showed that as a society, we need to work harder to break down the stigma and barriers associated with decision-making and action taken by men when it comes to seeking health information.

"Men must seek support early in response to their health and not wait until their health becomes problematic," Mr von Saldern said.

"Addressing any misconception that asking for help is a sign of weakness and encouraging men to make informed decisions on evidence-based information, are a few ways we can encourage men to understand and overcome these barriers and prioritise their health," he said.