Excess males among siblings of Australian antigen carriers

Prevalence of Hepatitis B among Pregnant Women and Its Impact on Pregnancy and Newborn Complications at a Tertiary Hospital in the Eastern Part of Germany

“…In the Hong Kong study by To et al [17] with the still largest cohort studied with 1,340 HBsAg-positive women, there was even a lower risk for gestational hypertension and preeclampsia, but a higher prevalence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid which tended to be the case in our data as well. Higher rates of male neonates among HBsAg carriers seen in our study is in line with two independent studies from Greece [19,20], and is supported by a study describing a higher frequency of male siblings among HBV carriers from the Salomon Islands [21]. As no clear reason for this finding is known yet, fertility disturbances involving a selective effect against females due to an autoimmune process are held responsible for the imbalance in the literature [19].…”

Evidence that mammalian sex ratios at birth are partially controlled by parental hormone levels around the time of conception

“…This may explain some of the other curious forms of variation of hepatitis B by sex (Blumberg 2006) and may indicate endocrine control of rates of viral transmission and/or replication. This line of reasoning is supported by the (otherwise unexplained) highly significant excess of brothers among the siblings of hepatitis B carriers (Mazzur & Watson 1974). Testosterone concentrations have strong genetic determinants (Harris et al 1998).…”

Further evidence that mammalian sex ratios at birth are partially controlled by parental hormone levels around the time of conception

“…Moreover, testosterone concentrations are reported to be positively associated with hepatitis B surface antigen levels in men (Jilma et al, 1998); hence, ex hypothesi, the high offspring sex ratio of offspring of carriers. The present line of reasoning is supported by the (otherwise unexplained) highly signi®cant excess of brothers among the sibs of hepatitis B carriers (Mazzur and Watson, 1974). Testosterone concentrations have strong genetic determinants (Meikle et al, 1997;Harris et al, 1998).…”