New study: it's the egg that decides X or Y sperm

[applerose]

Interesting new study suggesting that the egg plays a critical role in whether to accept X or Y sperm. Appears to be a screening process in place governed by the egg!

The battle of the sexes starts in the oviduct: modulation of oviductal transcriptome by X and Y-bearing spermatozoa (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4035082/)

[applerose]

Correction: ... screening process governed by the fallopian tubes!

Woops - I didn't know what an oviduct was - thought it was part of the egg ;)

[atomic sagebrush]

Neato!! Very cool, thanks for sharing!!

Proof positive it ain't just about sticking some low pH up the wazoo.

[atomic sagebrush]

standard atomic disclaimer - pigs ain't people...but still THIS is very very exciting.

[carmella_marie]

Ok I'm confused, so the female reproductive tract in pigs seems to "select" a certain gender but does the study say why or what factors cause this?

[jmomof3girls]

Neato!! Very cool, thanks for sharing!!

Proof positive it ain't just about sticking some low pH up the wazoo.
LOL!! That made me laugh!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

Ok I'm confused, so the female reproductive tract in pigs seems to "select" a certain gender but does the study say why or what factors cause this?

I only had time to just skim it but it didn't seem to (which I am really glad of, because normally with these studies they offer some hokey explanation and then people get too caught up in it.)

[applerose]

Ok I'm confused, so the female reproductive tract in pigs seems to "select" a certain gender but does the study say why or what factors cause this?

I think the most exciting thing to come out of the study is further evidence that the woman does play a key role in deciding her child's gender - it's not all the man's doing. The study has discovered that the fallopian tubes contain a sex-specific sperm recognition system, which then alerts the mother to the presence of X or Y sperm. Depending on which kind of sperm is detected, certain immune responses are triggered - and they're different for X and Y.

But in terms of what a woman can deliberately do to sway one gender or other, it doesn't provide answers.

The conclusion of the study is that the fallopian tubes "functions as a biological sensor that screens the sperm" and then responds by modifying the fallopian tube environment. The study concludes "there might exist a gender biasing mechanism controlled by the female".

[atomic sagebrush]

the good news is, we honestly don't HAVE to know (and I'm so so so glad they just left it as it was rather than inventing some hokey made up bs thing like the French Gender Diet people did). All we have to do is focus on declining condition and fertility and let our bodies take care of the rest. It actually makes it much easier to know this, because it is another nail in the coffin of the pH/ion/cal-mag theory. If it's the Fallopian tubes doing something, then it's probably NOT some sort of magnetic attraction between the egg and the sperm.