Maternal Dominance Hypothesis

[lindi]

I read this whole thread from the beginning, and the big question which arose in me is: in what ways does testosterone affect the brain? How is a person with high T's brain different from a person with low T? Now, this article will probably touch a nerve with left handed people, but it sort of touches on male and female fetuses and their reaction to testosterone in the womb: http://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/24/sc...-the-womb.html interesting food for thought.

[atomic sagebrush]

That is interesting, thanks for sharing!! My youngest seems to be left-handed.

There is a large body of data on how testosterone affects the brain, but unfortunately quite a lot of it is politically skewed...people with agendas who are trying to show that men are aggressive and basically the source of all evil.

[indigoviolet]

Sooo interesting!

[begonia]

Fascinating! I am super curious about left-handedness bc DD2 is left hand dominant for sure. We had a good idea even when she was a baby, because whenever she reached for things, or manipulated toys, it was ALWAYS with her left hand. And now that she is 2 she uses her left for eating, drawing, high-fiving

DH is a hybrid, like the article mentions on the first page ... he uses his right for writing and eating, but his left for anything sports related, plays ball left handed, golf/tennis left handed, etc. Has decent penmanship with his left but is more comfortable using his right.

Thanks for posting the link Lindi!

[envisioned]

Sadly this theory is an epic fail for me. LOL! But a lot of them are for me and I don't know why.

Every time I read an article on Gender Theory/Swaying/Preferences it all screams that I should have had boys. I fit the protoype of the High Testosterone Mom to a tee and I have 2 girls. Where's my facepalm emoticon??

[atomic sagebrush]

We don't have all the answers unfortunately. Lots of people smoke like chimneys and never get lung cancer, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a link between the two.

I personally believe the "Fertility Theory" outweighs the Maternal Dominance Hypothesis and the diet as well. If your fertility is lower for ANY reason, it doesn't matter if you're more dominant or following a boy-friendly diet, you're more likely to make girls because THAT'S what sways. Maternal Dominance (higher T levels) and diet can send a message to your body that times are good and a son has a better chance of survival, but the signal it sends is improving fertility. The opposite is also true, if you and your husband have less than optimal fertility (or at least you did during the months you conceived) then it doesn't MATTER if you are dominant and eat a blue diet, your body is getting a different message because of the lower fertility.

Don't overlook the luck factor too, even if someone was set to produce boys 90% of the time, there is still a possibility of a girl with every conception.

ALL of us can have kids of both genders at any time (and if we have enough kids, we WILL). Whatever-it-is that sways, it's just not this absolute, black and white thing, it's a gentle variation that we may not even notice going on.

[begonia]

I'm totally pulling my hair out lately over this stuff, because it absolutely drives me nuts. Like Envisioned mentioned everything I read points to my having boys. Even the diet and fertility things; we get pg just by winking at each other In all honesty I believe a large part of the reason I have such a hard time with having girls (when I always saw myself with boys) is that truly my very nature (see Maternal Dominance Hypoth) is geared more towards raising sons, hence why having daughters feels so ... unnatural to me.

And yet here I am, pregnant with DD3. I don't get it. And I don't feel like I can possibly try a 4th time because if everything says I should have sons, yet I still have 3 DD, how on earth can I believe for a second that my next child would be a boy? It's tough, because I'd like to believe that I *can* produce a son, especially given how I can't find a single bit of research to the contrary. Yet my personal experience is that even with much in my favor, I can't. Granted I've tried only 3 times not 10, but I also don't see how if my coin is supposedly weighted to blue, I wouldn't have had one by now. But enough about my personal situation since after all, I'm one person, and studies look at far more than that .. clearly I'm either an outlier or completely incorrect about myself.

I have a couple of questions on MDH ...one thing I wonder about is why, if supposedly the woman's biology primes the egg for X or Y prior to conception, things like sperm spinning still have a good success rate... at least for girls, it's pretty high though certainly not close to 100%. And IVF ... not that I know a ton about that (I am sure others can offer insight here) ... wouldn't the eggs retrieved from the same cycle lean heavily towards being fertilized by mostly X or mostly Y, if it was the egg that held some "key"? You would expect the eggs from the same cycle to be receptive to the same type of sperm, so to speak. Or do all the hormones in IVF somehow override the woman's natural environment?

And the other thing I wonder about with MDH is dominance is supposed to be an inherited trait, particularly if we're talking dominance that runs deep enough to impact a woman's biological process. So one would expect that if non-dominant females produced females, they too would be non-dominant ... and produce females. And so on. But if I think about friends I know (small sample of course) who are from all girl families ... they seem to have equal numbers of male/female children.

In all honestly I wish I'd never learned about any of this stuff because I spend far too much time on it, and I can't change the fact that I have 3 DD so it's wasted energy. I think I was better off (mentally, lol) when I chalked my kids gender up to all out chance

[fresas]

My maternal grandmother was definitely dominant and had two girls. My mother is also dominant (although my dad is, too) and they had 1 girl, 2 boys. My aunt and uncle are both relatively passive and have 1 girl, 3 boys. A childhood friend's mom was extremely dominant, but her husband was also extremely masculine (he hated boys - unresolved childhood issues) and they had 4 girls.

I guess I could be considered dominant, but I literally have too much testosterone thanks to the PCOS so I'm not sure how much of it is personality or how much of it is hormonal. I really dread both of my parents domineering ways so I have very actively tried to balance out my personality and tendencies as an adult.

I tend to believe that every child has natural tendencies, but nurture has a big part in how children find their way in the world.

I think that while the female body can tend to give preference to certain types of sperm, I am also think there is a male component that cannot be ignored. Whose body chemistry is more important? I don't know.

[xokatietatie]

I am a very dominant person. I always have been, even as a child. I just hope my sway will be enough to give me a daughter and not a fourth son.

[purple sky]

I am a very dominant person. I always have been, even as a child. I just hope my sway will be enough to give me a daughter and not a fourth son.

Me too Normally I would think this is a good thing *Girl power right lol I just wish for the love of wanting a daughter I could totally change my personality