News Release

New research finds summer-born women have fewer children

Peer-Reviewed Publication

European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

Women born in the summer have fewer children on average than women born at other times of the year, according to research published (Thursday 29 April) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1].

The findings, from a study of more than 3,000 Austrian women, show that despite the advent of modern contraception a woman's birth month influences her reproductive performance, just as it has been found to do within historic populations.

Lead researcher Dr Susanne Huber of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna and her colleagues at the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, found that, on average, the number of children was lower among women of reproductive age born between June and August than in those born in any other month, although there was no association between birth month and childlessness.

"It partially confirms a study of pre-modern women in Canada, which found that women born in mid to late summer and early autumn had below average numbers of live-born children, although that also found that women born in April had fewer children. It also partially confirms a study of historic Dutch women that showed fewer children among women born in mid to late summer and early autumn," said Dr Huber.

"We found that the women born in July had 0.3 fewer children per woman than those born in December, or to put it another way, 13.4% fewer of the 2.24 mean number per woman overall. It indicates that despite the potential influence of modern life and the use of contraception, birth month effects on later reproductive performance are at least to some degree similar in pre-modern and contemporary women."

Dr Huber and colleagues studied women aged over 45 and born after 1945 who were on the Microcensus Austria data set – a quarterly sample survey that has been carried out in one per cent of Austrian households since 1967 by Statistik Austria.

"In an earlier study looking at contemporary Austrian men we found that the average number of children was highest among men born in spring and lowest among those born in the autumn with intermediate values found in men born in summer and winter, indicating that males and females might respond differently to the season of birth."

Dr Huber said there could be many possible causes for the association between birth month and reproductive performance. "It could be the effects of the conditions experienced during fetal and neonatal life on early pre and post natal development. In temperate zones the external environment varies with the seasons, so the conditions experienced early in life are the result of a variety of seasonally and socially varying environmental and maternal factors that may all affect early development, causing potential effects on later life events."

However, Dr Huber concluded that there could be other factors that might also play a role.

###

[1] Brief communication: Birth month influences reproductive performance in contemporary women. Human Reproduction. Vol. 19 No 5. Pp 1081-1082.

Notes:
1 PDF version of this press release and full embargoed text of the paper with complete results can be found from 09:00hrs London time Tuesday 27 April at: http://www3.oup.co.uk/eshre/press-release/apr041.pdf
or is available from Margaret Willson.

2 Human Reproduction is a monthly journal of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

Please acknowledge Human Reproduction as a source.

Dr Helen Beard, Managing Editor. Tel: +44 (0) 1954 212404 Email: beardh@humanreproduction.co.uk

3 ESHRE's website is: http://www.eshre.com

4 Abstracts of other papers in ESHRE's three journals: Human Reproduction, Molecular Human Reproduction & Human Reproduction Update can be accessed post embargo from http://www3.oup.co.uk/eshre/ Full text of papers available on request from Margaret Willson.

Contact (media inquiries only):
Margaret Willson:
Tel: +44 (0)1536 772181
Fax: +44 (0)1536 772191
Mobile: +44 (0)7973 853347
Home Tel: +44 (0)1536 770851 Email: m.willson@mwcommunications.org.uk


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.