is this study legit?

[frugalmum]

I came across this study:

http://www.obgyn.net/ultrasound/ultrasound.asp?page=%2Ffm%2Farticles%2Ffetal_gender_placental_location

Which, if legit, finds an amazingly strong correlation between where the baby implants and orients (which I think means head is pointing) and gender.  At 6 week sonograms, nearly 100% of male fetuses were implanted on the right side, and nearly all female fetuses on the left side of the uterus.  It states that this can be used as a soft gender marker.  (I looked at my ultrasound from my last girl pregnancy and indeed she was implanted on the left.)

However the abstract strikes me as odd-- first there are usage errors in it ("this study might be used in the veterinary medicine to help endanger species") and the author provides two hotmail addresses as opposed to place of business addresses.  The "dedication" also strikes me as a bit weird, for a formal medical abstract.

I tried googling his name and it seems he also has a yen for predicting where earthquakes will next strike .

What do you think?

If you want to look at your ultrasound pics-- vaginal ones are as they appear in the picture in terms of left/ right --- I am not sure about abdominal ones.

[Mommyofalmost6]

Something just strikes me as odd....

[no5no5]

Am I missing something, or is it unpublished?  I would expect a study with such dramatic findings to be published unless there was something really wrong with it. 

[tracymom1]

Hmmmm.... interesting.  I hope someone else conducts some research regarding this - it seems like a great project for a med student or PHD study.  I have to go pull out my pictures now!

[outlier]

It looks like a similar article was published in the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology.  Here's the citation:

S. R. Ismail.  2009.  The Relationship Between Fetal Gender and Placental Location and Other Pathologies.  Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 35, Issue 8, Supplement, Page S197.

The article linked above has so many grammar issues that I highly doubt it would have been published as is, not to mention the dedication would never be published in a science or medical journal.  And FWIW, my ds was implanted on my left side.