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 Health & Beauty | April 2007 
Smokers More Likely to Have Girls - Study
 Reuters
Couples who smoke when they conceive their child are almost twice as likely to get a baby girl, according to new research which suggests tobacco "kills" boy foetuses.
An Australian fertility expert has voiced concern that the startling results could encourage wannabe parents to take up the habit to control their baby's sex.
Researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom found that rates of female offspring are dramatically higher among smokers.
An analysis of 9000 pregnancies at the hospital between 1998 and 2003 showed that mothers who smoked during pregnancy were one-third less likely to have a boy child than non-smokers.
And when the father also smoked the chance of having a boy were cut almost in half.
The results suggest that mothers-to-be who are exposed to passive smoke are also more likely to have a girl.
The researchers believe that chemicals in cigarettes, like nicotine, inhibit sperm carrying male chromosomes from fertilising eggs.
Study leader, Professor Bernard Brabin, told UK newspaper The Independent the results raised serious questions about the impact of smoking on population balance.
"The message is clear: if you want an increased chance of a male baby, don't smoke during pregnancy," Prof Brabin said.
Australian expert Dr Anne Clark, from the Fertility Society of Australia, said it was already known that male embryos were less robust and more likely to miscarry than females.
"More male are conceived than girls but about the same number are born once this weakness is accounted for," Dr Clark said.
"But we didn't know about this smoking connection."
She said the results were fascinating but was concerned they could motivate parents wanting a girl child to smoke.
"If people think that smoking might get them what they want, they're wrong," Dr Clark said.
"If a father smokes to get a girl, that girl is four times more likely to get cancer than if he didn't."
"And the mother is going to be three times more likely to have a fertility problem and twice as likely to have a miscarriage if she takes up the habit around the time of conception."
"So the message is don't smoke at all if you want a child." |
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