Scientific reason for no girls in dh family?

[47chromosomes]

The last female baby born to anyone in the paternal line of dh's family line was 4 generations ago. His great, great grandfather had four boys and one girl. Ever since then it has been boys (at least through his great grandpa charles line down to him and now our sons--not sure what the other 3 brothers of charles produced, but want to try to research it). To be fair, there was an only child in there along the lines--so I think the figure is 13 children over the past 100 years, and only one girl among them. And now we are expecting our third boy. It just seems too uncanny! I can't find any scientific reason that this would happen--of course there could be "influences" in his genes that make the sperm with the x chromosomes less viable for some reason (just speculating). Neither of dh's brothers have had any children yet, but we are now passing the baton to them for producing a baby girl. We're probably done having bio children. Anyway, does anyone have any insight? We are excited and very proud of our boys, and of their heritage of steadfast, loyal, and good hearted males as ancestors. It just blows me away, though.

[Galatea]

Yes, it definitely happens. My 2 boys are #14 and #15 over the past 3 generations. Dd was a shock. There is a company in clinical trials who sorts men's sperm by sex and there are men out there who have way more Y sperm (they make equal numbers, but the Xs don't survive) and they qualify for the clinical trial.

[kalamos23]

Huh! I know a family that had 12 kids - they had 8 girls before they had 1 boy. They did end up with 3 boys out of the 12 though. Another family I know had 8 boys and 1 girl, the girl was towards the end but not the youngest. Anyway, that is just my anecdotal evidence - I like Galatea's explanation!

[hillymum]

The same for my husbands family! His broother has three boys, we have three boys, my FIL has only one brother, and now my husbands nephew is having a boy. My MIL is dying for a girl!

[lillymonster]

we have the opposite, which is really weird. very few men. My mom's family had 8 kids, 1 boy, she herself had 5 kids, 1 boy. There are (counting my un-born child) now 11 grandchildren, only 3 boys out of the 11. My mom's sisters had mostly girl children, I am thinking 2 boys out of 8 women having kids.

What I am told that is also odd, is that my sister's all had same sex families - 2 girls, 3 boys, and the last with 4 girls. I have one girl so far. We are waiting to see what this on is, I am guessing another girl.

So we have no explanation because if it's the man the drives it, how did all the women get pregnant with girls?

[Terrilein]

That's funny, and I thought DP's family was a borderline matriarch! DP has 2 brothers. Between them they've managed to have 7 kids, but only one boy. DP is expecting his first child with me and we're expecting a boy which is just fine by him. So 8 kids - 6 girls, 2 boys doesn't sound so bad anymore . . . unless, of course, this lo decides to turn out being a girl instead of the obvious boy from the u/s pics.

[kalamos23]

lilymonster - I've heard that the woman's vaginal PH can have an effect on sperm - for instance, if it's acidic, you will have more girls, if it's more alkaline, more boys. I'm guessing that may be what's at play for your family.

[baglady]

My husband's family is just like that. He's one of 2 boys. His father is one of two boys and the grandfather and great grandfather had all boy families.

When I was pregnant with DS my FIL kept buying boy clothes before we found out the sex. He said, "We don't have girls." I'm dying to find out the sex of the new little one!

[MaryLang]

My Dh's family is like that too.
He's one of 14, they had 9 girls.
Out of those kids, there are 19 grandkids. 16 are GIRLS!!!

[~Demeter~]

Hubby came from an all boys family, 3 brothers. I had a son before I met my dh, he had a son before he met me and then we had 2 more boys together before we had a girl. Could be your timing, could be a lot of different things. Hubby still, almost 3 years later can't believe he 'threw a girl' and she has him totally wrapped around her little finger. Keep trying?? I'm pretty sure I'm having another boy.

[MamaJenese]

The people across the street from me growing had not had a girl born into the family in over 75 years. They ended up having 4 girls in a row followed by a boy. I remember vividly the excitement when that first girl was born! My mother had 23 first cousins the first 22 of which where girls. number 23 was the only boy in the generation.

[AFWife]

My DH's family is the SAME WAY! A girl being born is a huge deal because it rarely happens. He just said, "I can only think of two in the past 4 generations." And it's not like they're only having 1 or 2 kids per family...There's several in each. It's weird.

I've heard about the pH thing. If this baby isn't a girl I'm going to try it for the next one.

[47chromosomes]

Thanks everyone. It is so interesting, eh?

Originally Posted by Galatea

Yes, it definitely happens. My 2 boys are #14 and #15 over the past 3 generations. Dd was a shock. There is a company in clinical trials who sorts men's sperm by sex and there are men out there who have way more Y sperm (they make equal numbers, but the Xs don't survive) and they qualify for the clinical trial.

Galatea, that is interesting. Thanks for sharing. There is got to be something going on with those sperm! I'm convinced!

[RedOakMomma]

This is a really interesting article.

Just by 50/50 odds of having boys or girls, 1 out of 8 4-child families will have all boys or all girls. 1 out of 17 5-child families will have all boys or all girls.

I have a friend who is a genetic counselor, and she swears that 50% of the viable sperm in most men's samples are male sperm, the other 50% female sperm. Families with all boys or almost-all boys are just coincidence, and part of the statistical spread of different kinds of families.

Numbers-wise, if you've had all boys your chance of having another boy is only 1 or 2% higher than a person who's had both genders of children.

ETA: My husband is from an all-boy family (several brothers), and his mother was from a family of all boys except her (five brothers, I believe?). Everyone said we'd have all boys. Well...genetically, since ds1 and 2 were identical twins, only 2 of 3 pregnancies have been boys. For dh's brother, it was 1 boy, 1 girl.

[mediumcrunch]

Dh has a large family. He was one of 8, 4 and 4. Now some of his siblings have a definite tilt in one gender direction like his brother who has 11 boys and 2 girls. Over the years the girls have mostly been in the lead by a few but now with 68 grandchildren, my baby boy evened it out at 34 girls and 34 boys. Once you get a large enough statistical sample gender will even out although in smaller samples (individual familes with only a handful of children making up the data) you can get some anomalies.

[trimestersdoula]

My dads brother (my uncle LOL) and his wife had 9 pregnancies. They ended up having 5 boys. The other 4 pregnancies were little girls that she miscarried.
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[trimestersdoula]

Another wierd thing in my family is that all the babies born to girls from my family were girls. The boys in our family have all had boys. We all only have one child each. Except my female cousin who had her second baby (a boy). I had a girl first now I am having a boy.
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[CherryBomb]

It's interesting how that stuff plays out. Like ROM said, I tend to think it's the way the odds play out. I have a friend who had 6 girls and then a boy. I have another friend who has 6 boys (she and her dh each have a boy from their first marriages, then 4 boys together). My mom's family had 3 boys followed by 4 girls. When I was in grade school I remember the janitor's family had 13 boys, no girls.

My first three were girls, the unknown early m/c, then a boy (miscarried) and now I'm pregnant with a boy again. The most annoying thing was when I lost my first son, people telling me "maybe you can't carry boys?" Uggh.

[mum4boys]

My husband's family is like this too and we carried on the tradition of 4 boys then 3 years ago we had a suprise and a little girl.

[Carolinamom4]

We're dominant girls in our family. My grandma was one of 5 girls (5 boys died in infancy though in the Old World). My mom is one of 4 girls (none had children other than mom). It's me and my sister. My sister and I each will have 1 boy assuming this baby is a boy as the u/s indicates! So that's 7 girls for us and only 2 boys. I was stunned when they said this was a boy.