I have heard a whisper that a survey was undertaken and the results indicated divers are more likely to have female offspring. Not that i am either in a position to, or are considering offsping at the moment, however, I am interested to read the study in more detail and was wondering if anyone here had heard more detail about the study, and where i might be able to view the details.
Thanks!!
Cameron!!
Mods- sorry just realised that thsi should be in diving medicine section, could you please move, or let me know how to do an i shall complete.
tkdgodess
February 18th, 2011, 05:24 PM
I have one of each. Everyone who I know of that is an active diver (male or female) that has 2 kids has one of each too. I have male and female dive buddies who have 1 kid with boys and girls pretty much equally.
msg
February 18th, 2011, 06:46 PM
I have three girls. Doubt if diving had anything to do with that, but who knows?
Sea Lioness
February 18th, 2011, 06:46 PM
I have heard a whisper that a survey was undertaken and the results indicated divers are more likely to have female offspring.
Sounds pretty interesting, but I want to see the data. Also, I'm curious: was the survey of women divers only or did it include male divers as well?
For now, I'd categorize this as just a rumor, but if anyone out there can provide a link with more information, I'd definitely be interested in looking at it.
divermike1011
February 18th, 2011, 07:04 PM
Same rumor pops up about us nukes from time to time. Doubt there's any truth to it.
Michael
mkgriesinger
February 18th, 2011, 07:04 PM
Haha in psychology we read a theory that if you put mens "little soldiers" in a tube and spun them in one of those medical machines you are more likely get a girl. Maybe there is something similar to the conditions of diving?
Scott
February 18th, 2011, 07:19 PM
Damn it! My wifes going to be upset and feel she got cheated somehow if she reads about that survey.
We were both diving before, between and after kids and eneded up with three boys.
LeadTurn_SD
February 18th, 2011, 08:47 PM
Two girls, one boy.
I doubt that this differs from the rest of society as a whole, when you look at overall gender percentages over large populations.... but its fun to speculate anyway ;)
Best wishes.
Rhone Man
February 18th, 2011, 08:52 PM
I have only sons, as did my father (who has been diving since the 50s).
I think a more interesting theory that I have heard is that divers have fewer children than non-divers. That could of course be because (a) they are broke, and (b) the same reason the "diving" is listed next to "divorce" in the Yellow Pages.
gcs118
February 18th, 2011, 11:39 PM
A professional researcher from DAN at one of their lecture's at their HQ addressed this point during the talk and said it is absolutely bogus - no truth to it whatsoever.
Also, recalling Human Biology 101 from undergrad, you are statistically more likely to have a female child anyway. :)
j yaeger
February 18th, 2011, 11:54 PM
one and one.....
both of us divers
both of them also!
go figure......
have fun
yaeg
Searcaigh
February 19th, 2011, 12:49 AM
Also, recalling Human Biology 101 from undergrad, you are statistically more likely to have a female child anyway. :)
AFAIK you either pass on an X or Y chromosome, so that is 50% in my book.
I have one daughter, and my wife does not dive, I have other diving friends who have had all daughters, and others who have all sons, plus the usual mix of each with others.
There are factors I believe that can influence which sperm carrying X or Y achieving the goal (egg) such as pH and it could be possible that pressure or nitrogen saturation plays a part.
Something for a diving Gynecologist to study and write a paper on, going to take a long time though, a lot of variables to consider.
gcs118
February 19th, 2011, 09:14 AM
AFAIK you either pass on an X or Y chromosome, so that is 50% in my book.
I have one daughter, and my wife does not dive, I have other diving friends who have had all daughters, and others who have all sons, plus the usual mix of each with others.
There are factors I believe that can influence which sperm carrying X or Y achieving the goal (egg) such as pH and it could be possible that pressure or nitrogen saturation plays a part.
Something for a diving Gynecologist to study and write a paper on, going to take a long time though, a lot of variables to consider.
I just remember something like 49.9% male versus 50.1% female (or something like that). As an immature undergrad it stuck in my mind because the professor, who was female herself, said that female is the "default" gender and one extra step happens for a male - which explains the very slight discrepancy. I could very well have misunderstood some piece of information along the way though - bio is NOT my field! :no:
paddler3d
February 19th, 2011, 09:21 AM
Flashing back to biology here.
The Y gamete dies, or is damaged, at a lower temperature than the X gamete.
So our professor contended that men can influence the sex of their children by the the underwear that they wear, by taking hot baths, so on so forth. I do recall that he actually provided us with studies showing that this was indeed scientifically valid.
That was 15-20 years ago.
LakeCountyDiver
February 19th, 2011, 09:55 AM
I have 1 boy and 1 girl. Had them both before I started diving (well I didn't have them but you know what I mean):D
Searcaigh
February 19th, 2011, 10:07 AM
Statistically 49.9 and 50.1 % is probably not significant, but I am not a statistician so perhaps somebody more wise in numbers can comment.
The temperature differences are correct though, as is pH of the environment that the sperm swim through to reach the target.
dmoore19
February 19th, 2011, 10:16 AM
I dive, the wife does not. I have a daughter from a previous marriage, she has a son from a previous marriage. My X was not a diver either. Oh wait, I didn't learn to dive until my daughter was 18. nevermind.:Dhttp://www.hulu.com/watch/2364/saturday-night-live-weekend-update-emily-litella-on-violins-on-tv
Steve50
February 19th, 2011, 12:35 PM
ask the whisperer..
PatW
February 19th, 2011, 03:22 PM
Actually, males are more common than females. The reason is the payload of the missle. The gender determining chromosome is the "Y" chromosome. A male has one "Y" and one "X" (which is much larger and heavier). Females have two "X" chromosomes. A sperm carries only 1/2 of the genome, the egg has the other half of the contribution. The egg always has an "X" chromosome. So if the sperm has a "Y" chromosome, and it fertilizes the egg, the offspring will be male.
A sperm's chance of fertilizing the egg is greatly increased by increased speed. Since sperm containing "Y" chromosomes are a bit faster than sperm carrying "X" chromosomes, more eggs are fertilized with "Y" chromosomes. OK, so why do males tend to be outnumbered by females?
Well, the thing is that the "X" chromosome has a bunch of genes on it. If the mother's "X" chromosome has a defective gene, the result could be fatal if the offspring is male (they only have one copy so it better be a good one - remember there are 23 pairs of chromosomes of which X and Y are only 1 pair. So males tend to suffer higher mortality rates than females.
As I recall, males outnumber females for live births. But, females quickly outnumber males after a pretty early age (something like year 1 or 2 but I could be wrong on that).
So do divers have a greater chance of siring more females? I doubt that very much. What mechanism could possibly disable sperm carrying "Y" chromosomes over "X" chromosomes? There is no plausible explanation. In order to "prove" a difference, you would have to get the offspring of piles of male divers. That would take a really, really large sample size which would have to be in the 10s of thousands unless the difference observed was really big - such as no diver ever has a male offspring. I bet it hasn't been done. Medical research is notorious for its laxness compared to the "basic" scientists. My major professor used to say that "no medical study has ever failed to find what the researchers set out to find".
Most people do not appreciated the variation of the binomial distribution. One would think that the chance of having 5 children all of one gender (all males or all females) would be really small. But it is pretty common. It is 2/32 or 1/16 (assuming an even gender ratio which is close to true). That is about 5.7%. So you have piles of variation. To get around the variation, you have to run your statistics on a very large population. I bet that it has not been done.
