Does the month in which you were born affect how fertile you are? \nSurprisingly the answer is yes. Women born during the summer tend to \nhave fewer children than women born at other times of year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using \nbirth statistics from Austria, dating back to 1967, Susanne Huber from \nthe University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, and colleagues, show \nthat women with a birthday in July had 13% fewer children than women \nwith birthdays in December. Switching hemispheres to New Zealand, the \nresearchers found mirror image results. The reason for these patterns is\n not entirely clear, but researchers think maternal nutrition along with\n weather conditions (and likelihood of catching infections) may affect \nfoetal development at a critical stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moving to Vietnam, Huber \nand her colleagues found women with birthdays during the July rainy \nseason are more fertile than those born in the dry January period. They \nsuggest that the lower birth rate of the January women is linked to the \ncrucial third month of their foetal development. Poor nutrition or \nincreased infection in mothers, associated with the more difficult \nweather, could have detrimental effects on the foetus at this stage, \nthey suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For men the story is slightly different, with autumn\n men producing the fewest children and springtime men producing the \nmost. Again foetal development conditions are likely to be key, but \nperhaps the most vulnerable stage is different for boys and girls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Does the month in which you were born affect how fertile you are? Surprisingly the answer is yes. Women born during the summer tend to have fewer children than women…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n