Public Health Interventions toStabilize theAsymmetrical Sex Ratio in India

Partially Constrained Sex Allocation and the Indirect Effects of Assisted Reproductive Technologies on the Human Sex Ratio

“…Current data support that human birth sex ratios are affected by the childhood experience of parents (Song, 2014). Further, members of human communities are often concious of, and concerned about, local sex ratio bias (Mackenzie et al, 2005;Shrivastava et al, 2014Shrivastava et al, , 2015, which can lead to deliberate measures to alter sex ratios towards equality (Hesketh et al, 2011;Hesketh & Min, 2012;Zhou et al, 2012b;Bhattacharya, 2013), while other members of a population may be seeking to increase the probablity of producing offspring of a particular sex by the various means available to them (Madan & Breuning, 2014;Guilmoto, 2015). Sex-specific abortion has been a common method in some societies and has led to sex ratio skew in several countries (Hesketh & Min, 2012;Zhou et al 2012b;Madan & Breuning, 2014;Song, 2014) but ART could potentially be empoyed, generating considerable ethical concerns (Guilmoto, 2015).…”

“…Assisted reproductive technologies have been reported to directly affect the sex ratios of babies born (Dean et al, 2010;Maalouf et al, 2014;Zhu et al, 2015;but see Orzack et al, 2016). There are numerous ways in which sex ratio bias could affect public health and social well-being (Pyeritz, 1998;Tucker et al, 2005;Hesketh & Xing, 2006;Zhou et al, 2011Zhou et al, , 2012aHesketh & Min, 2012;Bhattacharya, 2013;Madan & Breuning, 2014;Shrivastava et al, 2014Shrivastava et al, , 2015Guilmoto, 2015). Here, potential influences of the observed sex ratio effects of ART (on the offspring of treated patients) on the sex ratios produced by the general (unassisted) population were explored employing an evolutionary approach based on frequency-dependent sex allocation strategies.…”

“…At reproductive age, sex ratio bias has the potential to generate substantial public health concerns (Pyeritz, 1998;Hesketh & Xing, 2006;Dean et al, 2010;Hesketh & Min 2012;Shrivastava et al, 2014Shrivastava et al, , 2015Guilmoto, 2015), leading, for instance, to increased socially disruptive behaviour, aggression, transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and mental health problems (Tucker et al, 2005;Zhou et al, 2011Zhou et al, , 2012aBhattacharya, 2013;Madan & Breuning, 2014;Moss & Maner, 2016). Given that ART methodologies differentially affect the sex ratios of offspring produced, the focus here is on whether the sex ratios of ART-produced babies might adversely cause a general public health concern via indirect effects on the sex ratios produced by untreated members of the local population.…”