A new study presented on Friday at the 2012 World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai has found that pregnant women with heart disease are more likely to give birth to girls than boys.
The study involved 200 pregnant women diagnosed with heart disease who were referred to a heart center for delivery. Of the 216 children born to these women, 75 percent were girls.
The study also found that the sex of the children showed that 64 per cent of the women had diagnosed valvular disease.
Cardiovascular disease, CVD, which includes heart disease and stroke is the biggest killer of women globally causing 8.6 million deaths annually. Unfortunately, women in low and middle income countries like Nigeria who develop CVD are more likely to die from it than women in industrialised nations.
Commenting on the study, Dr. A. Alizadehasi of Tabriz, Iran said: “We believe that this is the first study looking at the relationship between gender and the mother’s cardiac disease. We hope that this will lead to further investigation into this area”.
Chief Science Officer, World Heart Federation, Dr Kathryn Taubert who described the study as interesting observation said: “The chromosomes in a man’s sperm are responsible for the sex of a baby but this study does suggest that there may be a relationship between the health status of the mother and the sex of the babies that she is able to a carry to full – term. As the number of women with heart disease is increasing around the world, this could prove to be a very interesting area for further research.”