Sexual Inequality starts early from the Mother’s womb.

Why are girls winning boys in the battle for survival? Some scientist have found that this ability starts early, right even from the mother’s womb. They found that the ability of girls to survive preterm birth (or premature birth), stillbirth and neonatal death, along with other complications associated with birth, is higher than for boys. So, boys lose out in the battle to survive the womb and conception. The reason has been found to lie in the genes that are found in the human placenta.

On investigation of genes at the placenta, the scientists from the University of Adelaide, found that a distinct sex bias exists in the regulation of genes in the human placenta. The genes found in female babies are stronger and more expressed when it comes to placental development, pregnancy maintenance and maternal immune tolerance. Those for males or boy fetuses are expressed less.

This explains a known scientific finding that girls can survive more than boys; this because they are more likely to adopt risk-averse strategies towards development and survival.

On the other hand, this finding can be beneficial to improve the ability of boys to survive preterm births, stillbirths and neonatal deaths, which rate for boys is higher than that of girls. Also, the result will be important to help guide future sex-specific medicinal treatment or therapeutics for pregnant women and babies in the neonatal nursery.

Further reading: Why are girl babies winning in the battle for survival?.