Couples are more likely to have young boys than girls when following this sex habit

Oh, boy!

There is no way to guarantee that you will conceive a little boy – without implating a male embryo created through in vitro fertilization – but that has not forbidden many couples from trying anything (and everything!) To realize that dream.

Some have timely relationships close to ovulation, while others are engaged in deep, penetrating sex. Some women have increased their potassium intake, while others have consumed a lot of calories.

British mathematician Hannah Fry suggests out your calendar – and look at history.

On Instagram this week, she stressed that historical data show a significant increase in the number of boys born in England and Wales after World War II – a model observed in other countries as well.

This phenomenon is known as the “effect of the returning soldier” – some theories try to explain it.

One is that healthier male soldiers are more likely to survive war and return to their wives – and healthier people are more likely to produce male offspring. This is the basis of the controversial triversy-willard hypothesis, which has shown mixed results in various species and studies.

Another reason for the growth of young boys is that nature is compensating the loss of men in combat, ensuring that the population has enough men to reproduce.

And finally, there is the idea that soldiers immediately get involved in sexual activity when they return home, making women become pregnant earlier in their cycles.

“The chances of a woman who conceives a male or female child actually changes very detail depending on her cycle,” Fry said. “So little earlier, always so little more likely she will have a boy.”

Unfortunately for couples hoping to create a boy, Fry mourned that these chances are “too small” for an individual couple to “play” them.

“But when you escalate to the size of a population, this is a model that becomes really clear. At the end of a war, everyone has much more sex than normal,” Fry said. “Women get pregnant a little earlier in their cycles, and as a result, there is a blow to the number of young boys who were born.”

Studying the “return soldier effect” has proven difficult because it is difficult to isolate the biology of soldiers from other factors, such as maternal health and environmental conditions.

Meanwhile, in the US, the birth rate for boys has been consistently slightly higher than the level of birth for girls.

In 2022, for example, there were 1,048 male births for each birth of female. No intervention was needed.