Czeizel et al1 reported a significant male excess among infants born to women with severe chronic constipation as contrasted with controls. Czeizel and colleagues were unable to account for this phenomenon, so I wish to suggest an explanation. Women (as contrasted with men) are disproportionately often affected by constipation, which is frequently aggravated by pregnancy and ameliorated after delivery,2 so it is reasonable to wonder whether constipation has hormonal causes. Large quantities of data have been adduced to support the hypothesis that the sex ratios (proportions male) of mammalian (including human) offspring are partially controlled by the hormone levels of both parents around the time of conception.3–5 The probability of a male birth varies positively with some function of the form:
where E, T, G, and P are sex-standardized concentrations of parental estrogen, testosterone, gonadotrophins, and progesterone around the time of conception.
Kamm et al6 reported that women with severe constipation have a ‘consistent reduction of steroid hormones’. However, Maruti et al7 suggested that women with low bowel motility (as contrasted with those with high bowel motility) had high serum estrogen levels, and a higher risk for breast cancer. And Vesna and Neli8 reported that vaginal estrogen replacement therapy was associated with constipation. Accordingly I suggest that women with severe constipation may have high estrogen concentrations and, for this reason, have a statistical excess of sons.
Footnotes
Disclosure
The author reports no conflicts of interest in this work.
References
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