Salon Health & Body | Stress causes girls?

Aug. 31, 1999 | If you're planning to have a baby soon and you're hoping for a boy, try to keep your life stress-free. Research published in last week's British Medical Journal suggests that enduring traumatic events around the time of conception can cut your odds of having a male baby.

Dr. Dorthe Hansen of the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre and colleagues in Denmark analyzed the boy-to-girl ratio of 3,072 babies who were conceived around the time of a traumatic event in the mother's life. For the purpose of the study, a traumatic event was defined as the death of the mother's partner or an older child, or a serious illness in the family. The birth ratio of traumatized mothers was compared to a control group of mothers who were not exposed to traumatic events.

The research showed that only 49 percent of the traumatized mothers gave birth to boys, as opposed to 51.2 percent in the control group. "The results," the authors write, "show that severe life events may reduce the sex ratio, especially for exposures around the time of conception."

But can a baby's sex really be traced to the mother's mental state? "It sounds very far-fetched," says Dr. Bruce Shephard, an obstetrician in Tampa, Fla., and co-author of "The Complete Guide to Women's Health" (Penguin Press, 1997). He adds, "I've seen no such correlation."

Even the researchers admit that the study has limitations. The time frame for observing the mothers was the year of childbirth and the previous year, but in some cases the traumatic event -- a family illness, for example -- might have begun earlier. And other unmeasured stresses could have affected the mother's state of mind as well.

Still, the researchers stand behind their findings. Their report concludes that "psychological stress related to severe life events may alter the sex ratio through changes in sexual activity, changes in hormones around the time of conception, reduced semen quality, or an increased rate of early male abortion."

"Sounds like a theory," Shephard says. "Sounds like fluff. Psychological trauma doesn't do anything."

Or does it? A recent British study showed that anxiety during pregnancy can sometimes be dangerous for the baby-to-be. The expectant mother's psychological stress can restrict blood flow through the arteries that feed the uterus, which in turn can lead to a low birth weight.

And a 1996 study published in the Journal of Epidemiology showed that job-related stress can complicate pregnancy by causing high blood pressure. The authors wrote, "We would recommend that pregnant women who are working try to decrease the number of tasks they have to do in a day, decrease the length of the workday and generally ease the pressure a little bit."

Meanwhile, for those mothers-to-be who are crossing their fingers for baby boys, psychological stress isn't the only issue. Previous research has shown that a mother's exposure to physical duress -- earthquakes, floods -- can also lower the ratio of male births. One study showed a "significant decline" in the boy-girl sex ratio following the 1995 Kobe, Japan, earthquake.

So, if you want a bouncing baby boy, perhaps it's best to steer clear of the fault lines.
salon.com | Aug. 31, 1999

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Jon Bowen is a writer living in Washington.

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