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The health of the mother's heart determines the sex of the baby
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Pregnant women who suffer from heart disease are more likely to give birth to girls than boys. This was reported by scientists from the Tabriz Institute (Iran) at the Global Cardiology Congress in Dubai (UAE).
The study involved 200 pregnant women who had been diagnosed with heart disease and were referred to the heart center to give birth. The average age of the participants was 29. Sixty-four percent of the women had heart valve problems, 19 percent had dilated cardiomyopathy, and 14 percent were diagnosed with congenital heart defects. Of the 216 children born to the participants, 75 percent were girls.
The number of boys born in any human population should be similar to the number of girls, but the ratio of boys to girls in any given country can vary due to sexual selection practices. In Iran, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. And among the women in the study, 32 boys were born for every 100 girls.
The underlying causes of this difference in the number of female and male children whose mothers had heart disease during pregnancy are not entirely clear to scientists. The sex of the child is determined by chromosomes in the father's sperm, but this work has demonstrated that there may be a connection between the mother's health and the sex of the baby she is able to carry throughout her pregnancy. This can only be determined definitively through larger studies, Iranian experts believe.