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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday February 20 2020, @10:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-many-september-births-are-christmas-presents? dept.

Late Fall May Be Best Time of Year to Try to Conceive:

The first-of-its-kind study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, finds that, although couples in North America and Denmark are most likely to start trying in September, it's in late November and early December that they have the best chances of conceiving, especially at lower latitudes.

"There are a lot of studies out there that look at seasonal patterns in births, but these studies don't take into account when couples start trying, how long they take to conceive, or how long their pregnancies last," says study lead author Amelia Wesselink, postdoctoral associate in epidemiology.

"After accounting for seasonal patterns in when couples start trying to conceive, we found a decline in fecundability in the late spring and a peak in the late fall," she says. ("Fecundability" refers to the odds of conceiving within one menstrual cycle.) "Interestingly, the association was stronger among couples living at lower latitudes."

[...] season affected fecundability for North Americans by 16 percent, while Danes got only an 8-percent seasonal boost in the fall and dip in the spring. In Southern US states, the seasonal variation was even stronger, at 45 percent, with a peak in quick conceptions in late November. Meanwhile, the relationship between season and fecundability turned out to be about the same in Denmark and in Northern states and Canada.

The study used data on 14,331 pregnancy-planning women who had been trying to conceive for no more than six months, including 5,827 US and Canadian participants in the SPH-based Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO) and 8,504 Danish participants in the Snart Gravid and Snart Foraeldre studies based at Aarhus University in Denmark. These studies follow women with detailed surveys every two months until they either conceive or have tried to conceive for 12 menstrual cycles, gathering data on everything from intercourse frequency and menstruation, to smoking and diet, to education and income.

[...] "Although this study cannot identify the reasons for seasonal variation in fertility, we are interested in exploring several hypotheses on seasonally-varying factors and how they affect fertility, including meteorological variables such as temperature and humidity, vitamin D exposure, and environmental exposures such as air pollution," Wesselink says.

Journal Reference:
Amelia K Wesselink, et al. Seasonal patterns in fecundability in North America and Denmark: a preconception cohort study. Human Reproduction, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/humrep/dez265


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @01:50PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @01:50PM (#960274)

    what is this conceiving thing you are talking about?

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:28PM (5 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:28PM (#960300) Journal

      To Conceive is to form an idea in your mind. Sometimes these are bad ideas (for boys to think about women's parts), or sometimes good ideas (to learn more about how a stork is selected at the new baby center to bring a new baby to married couple's front door). Boys may be naturally curious about sex, but not if you sit down with them and patiently explain to them how a women's vagina is lined with two rows of razor sharp teeth, capable of biting off a child's hand!

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:32PM (4 children)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:32PM (#960389) Journal

        Dude, whatever you get up to with consenting adults is all good but leave the children out of it!

        • (Score: 4, Touché) by DannyB on Thursday February 20 2020, @09:14PM (3 children)

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 20 2020, @09:14PM (#960448) Journal

          That's the idea. Don't tell the childrens anything about it. They should not know anything about it. Yet adults are supposed to have somehow mysteriously acquired this knowledge about how their bodies work.

          Yet to hear some congress critters (won't mention which party) talk about how, when raped, a woman's body just 'shuts down' and doesn't get pregnant, I have to seriously doubt that these supposed adults actually understand anything about how bodies work. Which makes them very qualified to legislate. Just as you should not understand tech in order to write tech legislation.

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
          • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 20 2020, @09:42PM (2 children)

            by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday February 20 2020, @09:42PM (#960454) Journal

            Pretty sure they're gonna catch on once they're wrist deep!

            • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 20 2020, @10:48PM (1 child)

              by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 20 2020, @10:48PM (#960471) Journal

              Unnamed former Alaska governor's daughter: "Mom! I'm pregnant again! Why does this keep happening to me?"

              --
              People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
              • (Score: 1) by Kitsune008 on Thursday February 20 2020, @11:09PM

                by Kitsune008 (9054) on Thursday February 20 2020, @11:09PM (#960490)

                Ahem...I think the jokes write themselves with the bunch you seem to be referring to.
                It's like dynamiting fish in a rain barrel, or swatting flies with an RPG-7, you know, punching down. ;-)

                Carry on, you are doing entertaining work, while pointing out the absurdity displayed. *tips hat*

                While I might not always agree with your comments, I DO appreciate your style, truly. :-)

    • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @08:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @08:11PM (#960423)

      I thought SoylentNews wouldn't have this idiot meme from Slashdot incels.

  • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Subsentient on Thursday February 20 2020, @02:45PM

    by Subsentient (1111) on Thursday February 20 2020, @02:45PM (#960284) Homepage Journal

    Sloppy creampies for everyone! Even Grandma!!!

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:19PM (8 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:19PM (#960296) Journal

    NOT Late Fall may be the best time to try to NOT conceive.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:32PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:32PM (#960304)

      Or as a friend once described his gf -- she doesn't want to have babies, but she does like to practice.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @10:14PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @10:14PM (#960465)

        She likes to practice having babies? Sounds like a lot of trouble for anyone go through the trouble of 9 months of pregnancy, then labor and childbirth, on purpose and then not get anything at the end.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @01:28AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @01:28AM (#960543)

          Tough crowd tonight, you leave a hole and they fall right into it.

          How about: friend's GF doesn't want to conceive, but likes to practice. Does that close up the hole for you?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @07:46AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @07:46AM (#960626)

            Doesn't want to conceive, likes to practice, close the hole. Oh, I got it. Front entrance is closed for deliveries, please use the loading zone located in the rear.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:58PM (3 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:58PM (#960319) Journal
      Or maybe we have yet another study that has failed to take said seasonal patterns in when couples try to conceive into account.
      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:34PM (2 children)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:34PM (#960391) Journal

        That would be a pretty big miss for a paper called "Seasonal patterns in fecundability in North America and Denmark: a preconception cohort study!"

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 21 2020, @05:12AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 21 2020, @05:12AM (#960592) Journal
          Wouldn't be the first big miss.
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 21 2020, @01:32PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 21 2020, @01:32PM (#960664) Journal
          To elaborate on my previous reply, the reason such biases are present in the first place is because it's a hard problem to remove them, and I wouldn't be surprised, since it's happened before, that the authors didn't actually succeed. Certainly with so many big differences between the test groups, I wouldn't look at latitude as being a significant contributor, particularly when it's supposed to contribute the most when it's the least relevant (the group with the least seasonal variation)? Something else is afoot. Maybe the study overcorrected for the effects of seasonal variation and thus, is showing an effect where none exists.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:32PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:32PM (#960305)

    > Although this study cannot identify the reasons for seasonal variation in fertility
    Maybe we haven’t fully broke from our genetic animal heritage ; so the baby arrives in the summer, when there is food and warmth

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:58PM (#960406)

      The baby would be born after the brunt of the cold and flu season and by the next season would be a bit older and able to handle getting sick better. Natural selection would have preferred people who like to do it in fall.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:41PM (#960310)

    February 31st

  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday February 20 2020, @05:03PM (2 children)

    by looorg (578) on Thursday February 20 2020, @05:03PM (#960349)

    Wouldn't it have been easier to just look at when people are born, subtract about nine months (give or take a few days or weeks and such since it's not exact) and they know when the production process succeeded. OK that doesn't answer how long they had tried but still it showed when they were created, if you believe that life starts at conception and all that.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:07PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:07PM (#960374)

      https://indianpediatrics.net/march2000/march-306-312.htm [indianpediatrics.net]

      One of many studies/plots found with a search for "birth month".
      tl;dr -- peaks around August in most of the ones I saw (for northern hemisphere).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @07:54AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @07:54AM (#960631)

      That only tells you how many people succeeded, not how many people were trying. Without that data, it doesn't tell you whether the increase was caused by the success of a larger percentage of a smaller number of attempts or a smaller percentage of a larger number attempts having succeeded.

  • (Score: 1) by Kitsune008 on Thursday February 20 2020, @11:14PM

    by Kitsune008 (9054) on Thursday February 20 2020, @11:14PM (#960491)

    While this may be true, I advise a lot of practice year round.

    Remember to spay or neuter your pet. ;-)

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