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Mothers of sons more likely to develop gestational diabetes
Fetal sex may contribute to an increased risk for pregnant women developing gestational diabetes or type 2 diabetes after delivery, according to research in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
In a large retrospective cohort study, researchers also found that women pregnant with sons were more likely to develop gestational diabetes than women pregnant with daughters, whereas delivering a girl was associated with a higher risk for early progression to type 2 diabetes.
“We’ve always recognized that the mother’s health and behavior can affect her baby’s health, but this study highlights that the baby can also affect the mother’s health,” Baiju R. Shah, MD, PhD, of the University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto, told Endocrine Today.
Baiju R. Shah
Shah and Ravi Retnakaran, MD, of Mount Sinai Hospital and University of Toronto, analyzed data from a population-based health care database in Ontario looking at all women with a singleton live birth from a first pregnancy between April 2000 and March 2010 (n = 642,987) who did not have diabetes before pregnancy. Within the cohort, 313,280 delivered a girl; 329,707 delivered a boy. The population was followed for a median of 3.8 years. Researchers analyzed glucose tolerance test results for each woman.
Carrying a boy yielded a higher risk for gestational diabetes, both in the first pregnancy (OR = 1.03; 95% CI, 1.0002-1.054) and in a subsequent pregnancy (OR = 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01-1.08). Women with gestational diabetes in the first pregnancy had a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes if they delivered a girl (OR = 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01-1.12). Women without gestational diabetes who delivered a girl had an increased risk for gestational diabetes if carrying a boy in their second pregnancy (OR = 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01-1.14).
The fetal sex had no effect on recurrence of gestational diabetes, according to researchers.
The study suggests that the metabolic changes of pregnancy are different when women are carrying boys vs. girls, Shah said.
“The absolute magnitude of the differences we found are very small, so they probably don’t really have important clinical implications; rather, the study was focused more on understanding maternal physiology,” Shah said. “However, we now understand that the baby can influence the mother’s health, and this could have clinical implications once it is better understood.”
Further studies are needed to evaluate glucose tolerance in women during and after pregnancy, while also considering the effect of fetal sex, Shah said.
“We need to understand the mechanism by which male fetuses influence maternal physiology differently from female fetuses,” Shah said. - by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures