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Started Your Period Early? You’re More Likely to Have a Girl
Little girl fertilized eggs have a better chance
We’ve all heard the ideas out there for finagling with the gender of your baby: positions, timing, foods, the Chinese calendar.
But this month, Japanese researchers give us reason to think that the boy-girl scales might be tipped just a bit by the age at which a mom-to-be started menstruating.
In the journal Human Reproduction, scientists report that the earlier a woman started her period, the more likely she is to have a girl. Here’s why:
Looking at a population of 10,000 women, the researchers found that only 46 percent of children born to women who got their periods at age 10 were boys, 54 percent were girls. For women who began menstruating at age 14, 53 percent were boys and 47 percent were girls.
Of course it’s only a slight tip, but why the advantage to girls when mom started her period at a young age? The researchers cite earlier studies that have shown women with early periods have overall higher estradiol levels, which may be more hospitable to female fertilized eggs (male fertilized eggs may be less likely to make it through implantation).
Image: flickr
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