[Methods of natural and voluntary sex selection. Value for the prevention of sex-linked malformations and of certain recurrent abortions]

Voluntary selection of the sex of a foetus may have an undeniable value in the prevention of certain diseases of malformations which are sex-linked. An indirect statistical control of the efficiency of these methods was carried out on 100 sterile treated couples. These couples agreed to respect a certain number of parameters which constitute the methods of voluntary selection of the sex of the foetus. Under these conditons and taking care that we were dealing only with cases where the sperm cell count was normal, the results were positive in 77%. It is probable the the results would have been above 80% if the parameter of the low pH of the vagina had been used as well. Attention was then directed to the possibility of using these methods to prevent certain sex-linked congenital malformations on the one hand (a classical idea) and prevention of certain repeated abortions on the other hand (a less well accepted idea). Three characteristic case histories have been reported to support these hypotheses.

The significance of oral contraceptives in causing chromosome anomalies in spontaneous abortions

The significance of oral contraceptives in causing chromosome aberrations in the fetus was studied in 246 non-selected spontaneous abortuses using Q-banding technique. No significant difference in the frequency of abnormal karyotypes or in the sex ratio was found between 124 abortuses of women who had taken oral contraceptives in comparison with 122 abortuses of women who had never used oral contraceptives. The study did, however, show that women who had used oral contraceptives were significantly younger than women who had not used these pills. In addition, the gestational age of the chromosomally abnormal abortuses was on the average 6 days longer in the group of women who had used oral contraceptives than in the group who had not. The difference was significant only with regard to the karyotype 45,X.