中國網(wǎng)站品牌欄目（頻道）
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 Under pressure: A new study has found that women who are stressed while trying for a baby are more likely to have girls. |
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Women who are stressed while trying for a baby are more likely to have girls, research suggests. A study found that those who were under pressure at home, work or in their love life in the weeks or months before becoming pregnant had higher than usual odds of giving birth to a daughter rather than a son. The finding, by Oxford University and US researchers, means the economic downturn could see more women give birth to daughters. The study follows others that have shown the number of baby boys goes down following major upheavals. For instance, in the months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the number of boys born in New York plunged, while the economic chaos that followed the collapse of the Berlin Wall saw far fewer boys born than expected in the former East Germany in 1991. But the latest study is the first to link the phenomenon to the stresses and strains of everyday life and to rising levels of stress hormones. Some 338 women from around the UK who were trying to get pregnant kept diaries about their lives and sex lives and filled in questionnaires about how stressed they felt. Levels of stress hormones including cortisol were measured in the months before pregnancy. Of the babies born, 58 were boys and 72 were girls. Normally, in Britain 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. When all the women were put together – stressed and calm – the result could have been due to chance. But among the 50 percent of the women who had the highest amounts of cortisol before pregnancy, the sex ratio was clearly skewed towards girls, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual conference heard. The most stressed women were up to 75 percent less likely to have boys than the least stressed, the conference in Orlando, Florida, was told. Cortisol levels rise when people suffer long-term stress such as pressure at work and bad relationships. Money worries may also play a part, said Oxford University researcher Dr Cecilia Pyper. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
研究表明，在試圖懷孕期間感到有壓力的女性更可能生女孩。 一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，那些懷孕前數(shù)周或數(shù)月期間在家庭、工作或感情生活上感到壓力的女性生女孩的幾率更高。 牛津大學和美國的研究人員的這一研究發(fā)現(xiàn)意味著經(jīng)濟衰退會讓更多的女性生女孩。此前的研究顯示，在每次大的社會變動之后，出生的男嬰數(shù)量都會下降。 例如，在9?11恐怖主義襲擊之后的幾個月，紐約出生的男孩人數(shù)急劇下降，而在1991年柏林墻倒塌后的經(jīng)濟動亂期間，前東德出生的男嬰數(shù)量也比預期的少了很多。 不過，這一最新研究首次將日常生活中的壓力和負擔同應激激素水平的上升聯(lián)系了起來。 來自英國各地的338名試圖懷孕的女性每天記錄下自己的生活和性生活，并填寫了有關自己感受到的壓力的問卷。研究人員還測量了她們在懷孕前數(shù)月間的應激激素（包括皮質(zhì)醇）水平。 出生的嬰兒中，58名是男孩，72名是女孩。通常情況下，在英國每出生100個女孩就會出生105個男孩。 如果對這些女性——不論是壓力大的還是淡定的——不加區(qū)分，這一結(jié)果可能只是概率問題。 不過，研究人員在美國生殖醫(yī)學會年會上指出，那些懷孕前皮質(zhì)醇水平最高的50%的女性顯然生女孩的幾率更高。 在佛多里達州奧蘭多市召開的年會上，研究人員稱，壓力最大的女性生男孩的幾率要比壓力最小的女性低75%。人們在承受長時間壓力時，例如工作壓力和戀情不順，皮質(zhì)醇水平就會上升。 牛津大學的研究人員西西莉亞?派珀博士說，關于錢的煩惱可能也是壓力來源之一。 相關閱讀 （中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯：馮明惠） |
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Vocabulary: odds: 機會，可能性 downturn: （經(jīng)濟）衰退 upheaval: 動亂；劇變 cortisol: 皮質(zhì)醇 skewed towards: 偏向 |
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