rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_b7b6a02b-be91-5d91-8b07-6648fda6e425">31 Census of India: Sex ratio of total population and child population in the age group 0-6 and 7+ years: 2001 and 2011. http://censusindia.gov.in/ (accessed May 1, 2011).
32 Donahue D: Surprising sex ratios in the South Caucasus: son preference in the former Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijian, and Georgia. Conf of the Popul Assoc of America, Minneapolis, 2003.
33 Mesle F, Vallin J, Badurashvili I: A sharp increase in sex ratio at birth in the Caucasus. Why? How? in Attane I, Guilmoto CZ (eds): Watering the Neighbour’s Garden: the Growing Demographic Female Deficit in Asia. Paris, Committee for International Cooperation in National Research and Demography, 2007.
34 Almond D, Edlund L: Son-based sex ratios in the 2000 United States Census. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2008;105:5681–5682.
35 Dubuc S, Coleman D: An increase in the sex ratio of births to India-born mothers in England and Wales: evidence for sex-selective abortion. Popul Dev Rev 2007;33:383–400.
36 Hesketh T, Xing ZW: Abnormal sex ratios in human populations: causes and consequences. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006;103:13271–13275.
37 Profamy: Software for family household projection.http://www.profamy.com/.
38 Yi Z, Wang Z, Leiwen J, et al: Projection of family households and elderly living arrangement in the context of rapid population aging in China – a demographic window of opportunity until 2030 and serious challenges thereafter. Genus 2008;64:9–36.
39 Wood R, Goesling B, Avellar S: The effects of marriage on health: a synthesis of recent research evidence. 2007. http://njwedding.org/business/report_marriage_on_health.pdf.
40 Becker G, Posner R (eds): Uncommon Sense: Economic Insights from Marriage to Terrorism. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2009.
41 Hvistendahl M (ed.): Unnatural Selection. New York, Public Affairs, 2011.
42 Hudson V, den Boer AM (eds): Bare Branches: the Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population. Cambridge, MIT Press, 2004.
43 Measure DHS: Demographic and health surveys.http://www.measuredhs.com.
44 WHO 2008 life tables: computed for the World Health Organization. World Health Statistics 2010. Geneva, WHO, 2010.
45 Chung W, Gupta MD: The decline of son preference in South Korea: the roles of development and public policy. Popul Dev Rev 2007;33:757–783.
46 Lavely, W: First impressions of the 2000 census of China. http://csde.washington.edu/pubs/wps/01-13.pdf (accessed October 15, 2002).
47 United Nations Statistics Division, Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat: Demographic Yearbook 2008 — World Population Prospects: the 2010 Revision. http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/index.htm (accessed May 09, 2011).
Nicholas N. Eberstadt, PhD
American Enterprise Institute
1150 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036 (USA)
Tel. +1 202 862 5825, E-Mail [email protected]
Social and Biological Determinants in Health and Disease
Schenck-Gustafsson K, DeCola PR, Pfaff DW, Pisetsky DS (eds): Handbook of Clinical Gender Medicine.
Basel, Karger, 2012, pp 37–51
______________________
Marek Glezerman
Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Helen Schneider Hospital for Women, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tiqwa, and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
______________________
Abstract
In his book‘Life in the Womb’, Nathanielisz aptly states that’…how we are ushered into life, determines how we leave…’. This, in essence, is the basic idea of fetal programming, namely the understanding that during intrauterine life the stage is set for future health and disease. During fetal life, epigenetic changes aim to prepare the fetus for his future life, and if this preparation turns out to be inadequate the risk of various diseases increases. In this chapter, hormonal and genetic aspects of fetal sex determination will be presented, the effects of exogenous toxins on the fetal environment will be discussed, and the effects of the hormonal milieu on the development of the fetus will be reviewed, including the sexual dimorphous brain. Fetal programming of adult disease will be exemplified by maternal nutrition and stress, and the concept of the pregnant mother as an information window to the outside world will be discussed. Other topics like the impact of the intrauterine environment on future IQ and sexuality will be mentioned, and obstetric implications of fetal programming will be considered.
Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel
What Is Fetal Programming?
Modern obstetrics has seen dramatic changes in the past decades. We have learned to observe the unborn in utero, to diagnose a variety of pathologies, and to treat some of them in utero. The fetus has become a patient and modern obstetrics has matured into feto-maternal medicine. The latest development is the advent of the new concept of ‘fetal programming’ which is based on the understanding that the intrauterine environment can impose postgenomic changes that can have far reaching consequences on health and wellbeing which can affect the individual in adulthood as well as subsequent generations. Understanding the concept of fetal programming requires the understanding of epigenetics, which in essence is the nonmutational manipulation of genes without affecting their basic structure. While epigenetic modifications, by definition, do not
