Who Determines the Sex of a Baby? An article in the UK's Independent on the 28th issued a warning to couples hoping for a boy: If both parents smoke and continue smoking during conception, their chances of having a son drop by nearly half. Parental smoking may "kill" male fetuses in the womb.
While the average female birth rate in Western countries is 48%, this proportion significantly increases among smokers. Through a study of 9,000 pregnant women in Liverpool, UK, physicians at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine were startled to uncover this imbalance.Mothers who smoked both regularly and during conception were about one-third less likely to give birth to boys than non-smokers. If both parents smoked, the odds of conceiving a boy dropped by nearly half. Moreover, those exposed to secondhand smoke in smoking environments also tended to have more girls.
Researchers stated they do not yet fully understand the cause of this phenomenon.One hypothesis suggests smoking may induce physiological changes in the mother—such as reduced estrogen secretion or uterine abnormalities—to which the Y chromosome in male sperm, crucial for determining male offspring, is highly sensitive and susceptible to "damage."
Researchers contend that smoking significantly impacts demographic balance. This study has garnered substantial attention from international scientific organizations.