Researchers have uncovered an unexpected link between early-life diseases and lifetime childlessness in couples.
In a study, the research team analyzed the association between 414 early-life diseases and childlessness in over 2.5 million people born in Finland and Sweden. They found a “significant” link between 74 early-life diseases and the chance of being childless throughout life. The findings were published in Nature Human Behavior.
According to estimates, 15-20% of people around the age of 50 in Western European and East Asian countries are without children. While various social, economic and individual factors that contribute to the situation have been examined, there have been limited studies on how the occurrence of specific diseases before peak reproductive age affects lifelong childlessness.
“Various factors are driving an increase in childlessness worldwide, with postponed parenthood being a significant contributor that potentially heightens the risk of involuntary childlessness. Our study is the first to systematically explore how multiple early-life diseases relate to lifetime childlessness and low parity in both men and women,” said Dr. Aoxing Liu, lead author of the study from the University of Helsinki’s Institute for Molecular Medicine in Finland.
To understand the association between diseases and childlessness, the team analyzed 71,524 full-sister and 77,622 full-brother pairs who showed differences in their childlessness status.
“Interestingly, the association between disease and childlessness was more alike between childless individuals and their siblings who had only one child, in comparison to those with more children,” the researchers wrote.
Of the 1.1 million men studied, 25% were childless. Among 1.4 million women, the rate of childlessness was 16.6%.
Out of 74 diseases with significant links with childlessness, 33 were prevalent both in men and women. More than half of them were mental-behavioral disorders. The study also uncovered novel…
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