Strange Association Between Having a Boy and Subsequent Miscarriage

I found this article about how women who have boys may be at a higher risk of subsequent miscarriage. Read more:

Boy babies raise miscarriage risk

From the article:

"The team at the Copenhagen clinic looked at 305 women who already had a child.

One hundred and eighty four - 60% of them had had boys.

The usual rate in a population would be 51%.

The researchers calculated women whose first child was a boy had a third of the chance as those who had had a girl of having a second baby, even after treatment.

And those women who do have second babies are more likely to have girls.

Clue

Dr Henrietta Svarre Nielsen, who led the research, said: "It is known that when a female carries a male, it is strange to her immune system.

"And up to 22 years later, you can pick up cells in her immune system which act against males.

"Carrying a male baby is normally tolerated - but in some cases, that obviously goes wrong."

She said her research was at an early stage, so had not identified what the problem might be.

But Dr Svarre Nielsen said it might be that the woman¿s body has an unusual immune reaction to the presence of male cells, which then worsens so it is triggered even by being pregnant.

She added: "The fact that we can now detect a defect might give us a clue to what happens in a normal pregnancy."