Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF ) Freely available
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (13)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by James, W. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by James, W. H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Human Reproduction, Vol. 15, No. 5, 1184-1188, May 2000
© 2000 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

The variation of the probability of a son within and across couples

William H. James

The Galton Laboratory, University College London, Wolfson House, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK

It is suggested that there is a flaw in the currently accepted account of the variation of P, the probability of a boy, within and across couples. It was previously suggested that P has a mean (for Caucasian couples) of ~0.514 with an SD of ~0.05 across couples: and that the variation within couples is rather less. Grounds are offered here for suspecting that this formulation underestimates both SDs by a factor of as much as 4. It is suggested that in estimating these sources of variation, earlier workers did not consider the possibility that within-couple variation might be random and substantial. In view of the established epidemiology of human sex ratios, it now seems likely that such variation exists, and that there is a substantial measure of counterbalancing across-couple variation.

Key words: human sex ratio/Lexis/Markov/Poisson/variation


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Hum Reprod UpdateHome page
P. Devroey and A. Van Steirteghem
A review of ten years experience of ICSI
Hum. Reprod. Update, January 1, 2004; 10(1): 19 - 28.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Hum ReprodHome page
W. H. James
The causes of the variation of the probability of a son within couples
Hum. Reprod., March 1, 2001; 16(3): 596 - 597.
[Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.