Potential endocrine causes of some placental pathologies and their associated offspring sex ratios.

摘要

Tikkanen et al. (1) confirmed that male fetal sex is associated with placental abruption. Unusual sex ratios (proportions male) are also associated with other forms of placental pathology. In this context these authors mentioned my speculation (2) that maternal hormone profiles could be responsible both (at the time of conception) for the unusual sex ratios and (later in pregnancy) for specific placental pathologies. Tikkanen et al. (1) observed that my hypothesis 'has not been proven'. This is true, but here I show that the evidence for it, in regard to some placental pathologies, is stronger than their wording might suggest.