During pregnancy, there are many things that are taken into account and which are followed up to know if the mother's health status is ideal, or if any precaution must be taken to prevent any complications from occurring. But did you know that one of these things could be the sex of the baby?
A recent study found that the genetic profile of the placenta is different depending on the sex of the baby, and this could predict the appearance of certain complications in pregnancy.
Conducted by the University of Cambridge, the study analyzed the maternal and placenta blood samples of more than 4,200 women who were pregnant with their first baby, and those who were followed from their ultrasound exams until delivery.
His intention was to test the hypothesis that the sex of the baby was associated with the altered function of the placenta, and indeed they found that, according to the sex of the baby, the placenta was very differentspecifically in a gene called spermine.
In the case of mothers who were expecting a girl, the levels of spermine present in the placenta were higher than in the case of those who expected a child, and that this could be an indicative or predictor of possible complications depending on the sex of the baby:
- High levels of spermine indicated preeclampsia, while low levels of it were related to poor fetal growth.
The results of this study help to better understand why the presence of preeclampsia is more common in mothers who are pregnant with a girl, as well as that they could help them develop or certain tests and measures are taken into account to prevent and avoid the occurrence of this type of complications, taking as reference the sex of the baby.
