Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-2ptsp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-11T23:14:02.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coital rate, cycle day of insemination and sex ratio

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

W. H. James
W. H. James
Affiliation:
The Galton Laboratory, University College London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Guerrero (1975) has cited a wealth of direct data supporting the hypothesis that timing of insemination is related to the sex of the resulting zygote. It is argued here that if this hypothesis were correct, then parental coital rate would be associated with the sex of the resulting children. It is suggested here that empirical data support this inference and hence support the hypothesis.

It is estimated that if Pmale (the probability that a zygote will be male) declines linearly across the fertile period, that decline is from about 0·57 to 0·45.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , April 1977 , pp. 183 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © 1977, Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Clewe, T.H., Morgenstern, L.L., Noyes, R.W., Bonney, W.A., Burrus, S.W. & De Feo, V.J. (1971) Searches for ova in the human uterus and tubes. Am. J. Obstet. Gynec. 109, 313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guerrero, R. (1970) Sex ratio: a statistical association with the type and time of insemination in the menstrual cycle. Int. J. Fert. 15, 221.Google ScholarPubMed
Guerrero, R. (1974) Association of the type and time of insemination within the menstrual cycle with the human sex ratio at birth. New Engl. J. Med. 291, 1056.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guerrero, R. (1975) Type and time of insemination within the menstrual cycle and the human sex ratio at birth. Stud. Fam. Plann. 6, 367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hartman, C. (1962) Science and the Safe Period, p. 73. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.Google Scholar
James, W.H. (1965) Parameters of the menstrual cycle and the efficiency of rhythm methods of contraception. Popul. Stud. 19, 45 (and Correction (1968) 22, 281).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, W.H. (1971a) Cycle day of insemination, coital rate and sex ratio. Lancet, i, 112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, W.H. (1971b) Excess of like-sexed pairs of dizygotic twins. Nature, Lond. 232, 277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, W.H. (1972) Note on the Takahashi effect. J. biosoc. Sci. 4, 347.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, W.H. (1973) The fecundability of US women. Popul. Stud. 27, 493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, W.H. (1975a) Sex ratios in large sibships, in the presence of twins and in Jewish sibships. J. biosoc. Sci. 7, 165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, W.H. (1975b) Sex ratio and the sex composition of the existing sibs. Ann. hum. Genet. 38, 371.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, W.H. (1975c) Sex ratio in twin births. Ann. hum. Biol. 2, 365.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, W.H. (1975d) The distributions of the combinations of the sexes in mammalian litters. Genet. Res. 26, 45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johansson, E.D.B., Larsson-Cohn, U. & Gemzell, C. (1972) Monophasic basal body temperature in ovulatory menstrual cycles. Am. J. Obstet. Gynec. 113, 933.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinsey, A.C., Pomeroy, W.B., Martin, C.E. & Gebhard, P.H. (1953) Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, p. 395. Saunders, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Moyer, D.L., Rimdisit, S. & Mishell, D.R. (1970) Sperm distribution and degradation in the human female reproductive tract. Obstet. Gynec., N.Y. 35, 831.Google ScholarPubMed
Noyes, R.W., Clewe, T.H., Bonney, W.A., Burrus, S.B., De Feo, V.J. & Morgenstern, L.L. (1966) Searches for ova in the human uterus and tubes. Am. J. Obstet. Gynec. 96, 157.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Potter, R.G. (1961) Length of the fertile period. Milbank meml Fund Q. Bull. 39, 132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Revelle, R. (1974) On rhythm and sex ratio. New Engl. J. Med. 291, 1083.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, A.M. (1972) Gravitational separation of X and Y spermatozoa. Nature, Lond. 238, 223.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wallace-Haagens, M.J., Duffy, B.J. & Holtrop, H.R. (1975) Recovery of spermatozoa from human vaginal washings. Fert. Steril. 26, 175.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westoff, L.A. & Westoff, C.F. (1971) From Now to Zero. Little, Brown, Boston.Google Scholar
Williams, W.W. (1953) Sterility: the Diagnostic Survey of the Infertile Couple. Williams, Springfield, Mass.Google Scholar