The belief is widespread that during military conflicts and for several years after their end, boys are born more than usual - supposedly nature in this way restores the balance between the sexes. We decided to check if this is confirmed by statistical data.
The statement that boys during and after wars are born more, newspapers called The folk believes confirmed, however, scientific data. With reference to demographers, they write about this Internet portals And Blogs. "Komsomolskaya Truth"Notes that" after the war, the boys are more born, and after the attack - girls. " At the same time, the authors Lenta.ru In 2014 - again with reference to scientists - they claimed a completely opposite: as if boys during wars, on the contrary, were born less. IN Some sources Given A different thesis: supposedly more boys are born before wars. Biologist and popularizer of science Alexander Panchin calls The belief that wars contribute to the birth of a larger number of boys, myth.
Genetic floor The unborn child depends on which chromosome of the father - X or Y - merges with the egg of the mother. Most folk remedies that help “program” the sex of the child do not have full scientific justifications. Methods like laying under the bed during conception of “typical” toys for boys or girls are nothing more than superstition, which is in no way connected with the functioning of male or female sex cells. In this case, some experiments Showthat a diet based on products with a low sodium content and a high calcium content, combined with conception long before ovulation, increases the likelihood of a girl’s birth.
Scientists studying this topic use two different characteristics: the primary ratio of the floors (when conception) and secondary (at birth). It is impossible to reliably find out the primary ratio in any group for a number of reasons. Diagnose pregnancy using an express test Can Ten days after conception, laboratory methods (blood test for hCG) Give The result is slightly faster, six to eight days later. However, firstly, it is difficult to imagine a situation in which a woman leading a regular sex life, every sixth day after each sexual intercourse gives a blood test. Secondly, conception does not necessarily occur at the time of intercourse-a sperm that has entered the female body is capable of fertilization for four to five days, and the egg retains the ability to conceive two more days after ovulation. Usually, they resort to the test only after delay, and the date of conception is determined conditionally using the obstetric period, that is, counting the days from the beginning of the last before the pregnancy of the cycle (from the first day of the last menstruation). Finally, in the first weeks, pregnancy can be terminated, but a woman will not even notice this. By data The US National Medical Library, approximately every second fertilized egg dies before the woman understands that she is pregnant and there is a spontaneous abortion. Therefore, scientists can only put forward hypotheses about what the primary ratio is actually. By different data, this indicator can be from 1.07 to 1 in favor of boys to equilibrium.
The secondary ratio is affected by a number of factors. On the one hand, in male fruits, the risk of stillbirths is about 10% higher than that of female - this is in 2014 found out Researchers from the University of exeter (Great Britain) who analyzed data on more than 30 million births around the world. Also male fruits more subject to the occurrence of chromosome anomalies, which lead to spontaneous termination of pregnancy. On the other hand, in the embryonic period (up to nine weeks), a miscarriage more often is happening with female fruits (including those who do not have chromosomal abnormalities).
UN data show that since 1950, the secondary sexual proportion has been constantly shifting in favor of boys - in 2023 the global ratio of gender at birth Compiled Already 105.18 boys per 100 girls. This is facilitated by Selective abortion - Some parents prefer to get rid of female embryos. This practice is most common in China, India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan. By calculations Scientists from the University of Southampton, in 1970–2017, 23.1 million girls were not born due to selective abortions around the world.
The scientists described a change in secondary ratio during and after military conflicts in the middle of the 20th century. In 1946, Soviet demographer Sergey Novoselsky Analyzed Statistics for the first half of the 20th century. The scientist explained the choice of this temporary segment by the fact that "the majority of wars in the 19th century were short -term, and for the previous periods of long wars until the 19th century, as well as the beginning of the 19th century, as the Napoleonic war, there were no accurate and complete data on the sexual composition of born." Novoselsky turned to accessible statistics on secondary sexual proportion in Germany, France, England and Wales, as well as Moscow and St. Petersburg, during and after the First World War. It turned out that in all the mentioned countries and cities by the end of the war and in the first year after its completion, the secondary sexual proportion is shifted towards the birth of boys compared to the pre -war years.
Novoselsky also analyzed the data on Leningrad before, during and after the blockade of 1941-1944.
The author explains the “failure” of 1942 by “extremely increased ... the frequency of premature birth”, noting that “among prematurely born, not boys, but girls predominate.” Novoselsky concludes that war really changes the ratio of sexes among newborns.
In 1954, a shift in a sexual proportion in the United States during and after the Second World War Described Researchers from the State University of New York and the Harvard School of Public Health. They noted that in 1942-1946, the share of boys among newborns among the White population was higher than average, and in 1946, there were more boys in the United States in relation to girls than in any of the years that statistics are available.
For this phenomenon Use The term “effect of a returning soldier”-it was believed that after a long separation of the couple more often have sex, including before ovulation in a woman, and due to the fact that spermatozoa with Y chromosome is more tenacious, they are higher than a chance to fertilize the egg. True, this hypothesis contradicts the experiment mentioned at the beginning of this analysis and showed that sexual intercourse before ovulation in combination with a special diet increases the likelihood of the girl’s birth.
Vladimir Pisrin, teacher of the Humanitarian Faculty of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, in his article for the magazine "Science and Life" Writesthat in the middle of the 20th century, the displacement of sexual proportions was also noticed by people working in high -mountain conditions (apparently in the Caucasus) - only 36 sons were born in 100 daughters. Initially, the phenomenon was associated with oxygen starvation, increased radiation, low pressure and contrast between constant life on the plain and a business trip in the highlands. To check the hypothesis to the mountains for a month and a half, a group of rabbits was transported. Typically, the sexual proportion in the offspring of these animals is 96 males per 100 females. After a month and a half in the mountains and returning to the habitual habitat, the “climbers” were 68, and it amounted to 68, and the control group (they lived on the plain, but for a month and a half were also isolated from females)-65. That is, the main factor in the change in the proportion of steel did not external conditions, namely abstinence, which the animals were regarded as a threat to the existence of the species. This observation is consistent with the fact that the female Support The stability of the species, and the males, on the contrary, make changes.
Researcher Valeri Jay Grant, author of the book “Maternal personality, evolution and sex ratio: do the mother control the sex of the baby?”, Analyzing the statistics of birth rate during the years of conflicts and terrorist attacks, shares The next observation: after short wars and short -term shocks, more girls are born, and after prolonged military conflicts - more boys. As can be seen from the above statistical data, the experience of the two world wars quite fits into this concept. Metaanalysis of the influence of terrorist attacks on the secondary sexual proportion Spent In 2017, scientists from New Zealand, Ireland and Malta. They analyzed the shift of the sexual proportion in the USA, Spain, Great Britain and Norway after five large terrorist attacks that occurred in these countries: respectively, attacks on September 11, 2001 and jokes In the elementary school of Sandy-huk in 2012, explosions in Madrid in 2004, a series of terrorist attacks in London In 2005, as well as the terrorist attack, which Anders Breivik arranged in 2011 in Oslo and on the island of Utya. Within three to five months after each tragic event, the number of born boys fell by 3%-as scientists suggest, due to the fact that maternal organisms in some unknown science was “stopped” by such a pregnancy. The girls did not touch. At the same time, jokes in August 2019 in Ohio and Texas to shift the sexual proportion, judging by the researchers, Not brought.
A large -scale review of factors that can affect the floor of the unborn child, Spent In 2021, scientists from the USA and Sweden. They analyzed the data on 150 million Americans and 9 million Swedes, in which over 6 million children were born in the aggregate for the study period (2003–2011 and 1983-2013). It turned out that the air temperature during conception and the season did not affect the child’s floor in any way, but the high levels of arsenic, mercury, nitrates and aluminum in the water and soil “programmed” the birth of a boy. Scientists also studied social factors: so, in families living next to the fast food restaurant, girls more often appeared, and in those who lived in areas with high mortality in an accident, boys. Finally, researchers studied statistics on children born shortly after Hurricane "Katrina"who fell to the southeast of the United States in 2005, and jokes At the Virgin Polytechnic Institute in 2007. Although the number of dead in the first case was significantly higher, natural disaster did not change the sexual proportion, but after shooting in the educational institution, a displacement was observed in favor of the birth of girls. Summarizing their conclusions, scientists suggested that in favorable conditions, women give birth to more boys, and in adverse ones - girls.
To similar conclusions Came Shige Song from the city University of New York. He studied the displacement of a sexual proportion during Great Chinese hungerwhich in 1959-1961, according to various estimates, took life from 15 to 30 million people. As Song notes, since April 1960, a significant change in the relationship in favor of girls, which lasted until October 1963, was observed in the PRC. Then the compensatory growth of the birth of the boys followed, and the proportion returned to the previous values only by July 1965. Song explains this by the fact that from the point of view of evolution during the starvation of a woman to survive the population should produce more girls.
Finally, exists hypothesis About a certain gene that activates spermatozoa with X- or Y-chromosome. Corri Hellatley from the Leicester University (Great Britain) analyzed 927 genealogical ancient Americans and Europeans. He suggested that the probability of the birth of a descendant of a particular gender is inherited along the male line. SupposeThere are two families: John and Richie. John has a genome responsible for the birth of a large number of sons, so he has one daughter and three sons. Richie does not have this gene, so he has three daughters and one son. In the event of the start of the war, sons from both families go to the front. For John, the probability that at least one of his son will survive is much higher than for Richie. Having returned, this son can become the father of several more boys. At the same time, nothing will depend on the daughters of John and Richie, because, according to Hellatley, the gene is active exclusively in men. Although statistics do not contradict this hypothesis, scientists have not yet discovered such a gene.
Thus, the demographic statistics of the times of the First and Second World Wars, as well as the first post -war years, rather confirms the thesis that more boys are born during and under the end of large -scale hostilities. Although scientists put forward various hypotheses explaining this observation, there is no generally accepted consistent explanation in the academic environment yet. It cannot be excluded that this is only a false correlation and the war does not play a key role in changing the secondary sexual proportion.
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