Interesting thought.... I think it might be related to personality, we tend to be quite control freaks and stressors. Was just reading a thread on that in the introductions section, talks about boy / girl mum personalities.
I also agree with the change in body conditioning having something to do with it.
I find it very interesting....
I am the swayer who mentioned it in my sway. I read all the information Atomic put up on the matter and clicked every link I could. I didn't mean to scare you so badly.
From what I understand, women who are ACTIVE in anorexia but are still ovulating (obviously a very small number) are more likely to have a girl. It's the less ideal conditions of the body and near-infertility that probably causes that to happen. Truthfully, I did not pay much attention to the bulimic side of things, but I don't remember the stats being quite to drastic as with an anorexic. I don't think the person has to even be "super-active" in it, but enough to cause her body to be less ideal of a breeding ground. It's actually not so different from the LE diet (eating non-nutritive foods in small amounts, skipping meals, losing weight, etc).
And then when the woman goes into full recovery, her odds of having a boy are much higher than stastically expected. I don't know for how long that is true. I would imagine once the body has time to maintain a healthful weight/nutrient mix and can recover from the damage done...it would go back to homeostasis and could equally conceive girls and boys. But I do understand how early recovery can cause boys. In anorexics at least, it is basically the same as the HE diet, gaining weight, eating tons of nutrients, "times o plenty" type stuff. The body thinks it a HUGE boom time. At least that is basically what the articles said. I'll see if I can link them to this thread, so you can infer your own conclusions.
But I was severely anorexic for 6 years from 15-21. I began real recovery at 21 and was not a healthy weight until I was almost 23. I started ovulating at mid-23 and conceived my son at early-24. I had been gaining weight (i had help from some steriods for liver issues) and was obviously getting my body back to normal. I remained very healthy and maintained my weight from my first to my second child (24-26). But clearly, my body was back to some form of "center" by 27 because I conceived a little girl with a boost from swaying this time.
I do feel really blessed and lucky to have any kids at all. We weren't sure for a long time if my body would ever pick back up. I stay in touch with many of my friends from treatment and of the ones who recovered had kids...all of them had boys (I will NOT delude you about there being a lot of them...I only count five of about 40 folks, some of whom I did lose touch with and am not sure if they had kids...but wouldn't count on it).
Again, didnt mean to freak you out. There is probably not a lot of research on this period, much less definitive ones. I think a previous poster was correct in saying women who have had eating disorders generally have anxiety issues/OCD issues and potentially obsess about things like getting pregnant. Those things make them more likely to have a boy. Also, many women with eating disorders have high testosterone levels naturally. I am an exception to that rule, only because I am genetically not inclined for high testosterone (both parents are low, low, low). But it's common and and can contribute.
Given how small the eating disorder pool is, it would be hard to come up with distinct numbers. It is even hard to "qualify" what counts as an eating disorder...do they only use folks who were hospitalized? What about ones who managed in therapy? What about ones who had a "just below the line" burn for years and years but were never formally diagnosed but recognize the disordered thoughts? Do you only count clinical anorexia/bulimia, and does severity affect the outcome? KWIM? So many factors to sway data like that. And when dealing with a 1% of the population, a 1% who often doesn't end up reproducing, it can be challenging, I am sure.
Thank you hotdogz&boyz!!! I really appreciate you answering my question... I'm gonna keep reading and see what else can I find about this, but I don't want to obsess with this, I want to concentrate in my sway :):)
Yes, I have a study that shows that women who had anorexia/bulemia where their BMI was below normal and their ovulation was negatively affected had way more daughters, and EDNOS and binge eaters where BMI stayed normal and ovulation was not neg. affected had way more sons.
The trend I have seen is overwhelmingly that women who had eating disorders but are now recovered, have boys. In fact I noticed this before I even believed in swaying.
I think there are two factors that come into play. The first is that when you restrict your diet so severely, the only direction you can go is UP. Anything will be seen as an improvement in condition - your body was once terribly depleted in resources and so even just eating a little bit better is still going to be bettering your physical condition. if you were eating 10 g of fat a day, Please no one panic over this, it DOES NOT mean you can't have a daughter. That's what the herbs, antihistamine, lowering sperm count, etc stuff is for is to make up for anything diet can't get done.Quote:
Originally Posted by justlikeme
I do think it goes beyond that into issues of personality as well. If you look at tribes, bands, villages, nomad groups - the way humanity has lived for most of its existence - most individuals ate very similar diets to each other. There wasn't necessarily a major difference in what food was eaten by the dominant and submissive members of the group. One might have had a little more, one might have had a little less, but overall very similar. It can't be just diet, it doesn't make sense that it's just diet alone. In a world where everyone eats grubs, rotten fruit, and scavenged antelope, can diet really be swaying that much??
Dietary factors being equal, there has to be something to the personality factor - males born to dominant females have better chance of survival/reproduction (male offspring born to submissive females are often killed by adult males and even killed by dominant females among some primates, and even to this day it's been shown that families higher in social status have more sons) and so there has to be some sort of cues from the environment that send a "message of dominance". This is nowhere near 100% and many of the toughest, strongest, most successful and awesome women I know are girl moms. But overall I think there has to be some trend that way because it makes some evolutionary sense that there is.
So then the question becomes, why do people get eating disorders? Is there something (liking to be in control) that predisposes them to having both boys and eating disorders? Or does the eating disorder itself (constantly obsessing over food) do something hormonally or otherwise that causes them to have more boys so long as their BMI stays normal? Or both? That, we don't have the answer to. What I DO believe with every fiber of my being is that every one of us has the potential to have both daughters and sons and that no one is "doomed" or destined to have kids of only one gender.
Thank you Atomic! That was a really good explanation...As I said I don't want get obsess with this topic and I want to forget about this, that's why I want to keep what you said at the end in my mind:" What I DO believe with every fiber of my being is that every one of us has the potential to have both daughters and sons and that no one is "doomed" or destined to have kids of only one gender." Thanks!! :)
I had an eating disorder , anorexia from ages 15-18 I do have 2 boys. However I might not have been able to carry them to term or healthy but I did conceive 2 girls ...
My mother also had anorexia and had one of each sex.
Before I conceived my first son, I was suffering from bulimia for many months. I lost tons of weight very quickly and stopped ovulating. I decided to change my life around since I knew I wanted a baby so 2 months before he was conceived, I stopped being a bulimic, gained weight and started to take multivitamins, and started to ovulate. It was that first cycle that I got pregnant with him.