Brief communication: Birth month influences reproductive performance in contemporary women

BACKGROUND: Season of birth has been reported to affect later reproduction in samples of pre‐modern women and contemporary men. METHODS: To examine whether the effect of birth date is also valid in contemporary women, we investigated the association between birth month and measures of reproductive p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human reproduction (Oxford) 2004-05, Vol.19 (5), p.1081-1082
Main Authors: Huber, S., Fieder, M., Wallner, B., Moser, G., Arnold, W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Austria
Biological and medical sciences
birth date/female/human/offspring count/reproduction
Embryology: invertebrates and vertebrates. Teratology
Female
Fertility
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Middle Aged
Parturition
Reproductive Behavior - statistics & numerical data
Seasons
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Summary:BACKGROUND: Season of birth has been reported to affect later reproduction in samples of pre‐modern women and contemporary men. METHODS: To examine whether the effect of birth date is also valid in contemporary women, we investigated the association between birth month and measures of reproductive performance (number of live‐born children, % childless individuals) in a representative sample of contemporary Austrian women. RESULTS: Among reproducing women, birth month is significantly associated with the number of live‐born children (n = 2839, P = 0.032). On average, women born in summer months have fewer children than women born during the remainder of the year. No association between birth month and the percentage of childless individuals was found. CONCLUSIONS: As has been reported in pre‐modern women, month of birth also appears to affect later reproduction in contemporary women.
ISSN:0268-1161
1460-2350
1460-2350
DOI:10.1093/humrep/deh247