Are Female Children More Likely to be Born to Indian Anesthesiologists? – A Nationwide Survey

CONTEXT: Exposure to medications (prescribed or over-the-counter) or exposure to chemicals (unintentional or occupational) during pregnancy have always been of great scientific concerns. AIMS: This study aims to ascertain whether the recently documented offspring sex ratio (OSR) skew in medical literature is reproducible among our respondent population and how our respondents' characteristics relate to the OSR skew (if any) in our respondent population. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A survey questionnaire uploaded on the SurveyMonkey(®) Online Portal. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The survey was completed by the Indian anesthesiologists about themselves and their spouses during the periconceptional periods of their offspring. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Analysis of variance for means and Chi-square test for proportions with P < 0.05 as statistically significant. RESULTS: Respondents (irrespective of gender) who sired first-born or second-born male children were anyway more likely to sire male children as reflected in the personal sex ratios among all offspring sired by them, and similarly respondents (irrespective of gender) who sired first-born or second-born female children were anyway more likely to sire female children. Male parents were significantly more common to have worked in operating rooms around the time of conception of first-born or second-born children. As compared to female anesthesiologists, male anesthesiologists significantly reported that they were practicing inhalational induction of anesthesia more often around the conception of their second-born female children as compared to around the conception of their second-born male children. CONCLUSIONS: Practice of inhalational induction of anesthesia was reportedly more common among Indian male anesthesiologists during periconceptional period of their second-born female children.