Fertility and Sex Ratio of Offspring of Female HBsAg Carriers

Abstract

An increased sex ratio (number of males per 100 females) in the offspring of HBsAg carriers in a Greek population was reported in a previous study (Hesser et al. 1975) and an excess of males among the siblings of HBsAg carriers has been observed in a Solomon island population (Mazzur & Watson 1974). Though it was postulated that the alteration in live birth sex ratio Was due to selection against the female zygote at the time of implantation (Hesser 1974), the mechanism effecting such selection remains obscure.. The purpose of the present study was to further substantiate the observation of a sex ratio disturbance and elucidate the mechanism accounting for it, by analysing data of the fertility a?d sex ratio of offspring of HBsAg positive and negative married females from 12 Greek Villages.

Prevalence of Hepatitis B among Pregnant Women and Its Impact on Pregnancy and Newborn Complications at a Tertiary Hospital in the Eastern Part of Germany

“…In the Hong Kong study by To et al [17] with the still largest cohort studied with 1,340 HBsAg-positive women, there was even a lower risk for gestational hypertension and preeclampsia, but a higher prevalence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid which tended to be the case in our data as well. Higher rates of male neonates among HBsAg carriers seen in our study is in line with two independent studies from Greece [19,20], and is supported by a study describing a higher frequency of male siblings among HBV carriers from the Salomon Islands [21]. As no clear reason for this finding is known yet, fertility disturbances involving a selective effect against females due to an autoimmune process are held responsible for the imbalance in the literature [19].…”

“…Higher rates of male neonates among HBsAg carriers seen in our study is in line with two independent studies from Greece [19,20], and is supported by a study describing a higher frequency of male siblings among HBV carriers from the Salomon Islands [21]. As no clear reason for this finding is known yet, fertility disturbances involving a selective effect against females due to an autoimmune process are held responsible for the imbalance in the literature [19]. …”

Can Hepatitis B Mothers Account for the Number of Missing Women? Evidence from Three Million Newborns in Taiwan

“…Finally, the exact biological mechanisms of this hypothesis remain unknown. Although Drew, Blumberg, et al (1978) hypothesized that HBV positive women were more likely to 'spontaneously abort' a female fetus, Livadas et al (1979) were unable to find any statistical evidence to support such a proposition.…”

“…These include small numbers of observations, the poor quality of the data used (Chahnazarian et al 1988), samples being obtained from 9 See, for example, Hesser et al (1975), Cazal et al (1976), Livadas et al (1979), Drew et al (1978;1982;1986) and Chahnazarian et al (1988). limited locations, and some samples having extremely high or low sex ratios of either HBV or non-HBV women.…”

“…One may conclude that HBV does not have any effect on sex ratio at birth. Even if we take the largest estimate of marginal probability, which is only about 0.0025 in all of our regressions, HBV cam only raise the sex ratio at birth from the baseline of 105 to 105.16 20 Using this number, we now can provide an upper bound 'back of the envelop' calculation on the ultimate economic question: how many percentage of missing women can be explained by HBV? Sen (1990) There is, however, one caveat with regard to our research methodology which needs to be addressed here.…”