Do Male Medical Doctors Who Are Exposed to Ionizing Radiation Have Less Sons?

Objective: In this study, we aimed to compare the proportion of male babies and female babies of male physicians who are exposed and not exposed to low-dose ionizing radiation.

Methods: There were 177 male physicians involved in the study. Data were collected via telephone and one-to-one surveys. Orthopedic surgeons and gynecologists were involved in the study as surgical specialties, pediatricians were involved as a physician group, neither working in the operation room environment nor using fluoroscopy. The number of children, sons and daughters, were asked. Hours spent in the operation room were asked to surgeons. Orthopedic surgeons were asked to mention their subspecialties and the frequency of fluoroscopy use per week.

Results: Having a daughter was not significantly different among 3 physician groups (P > .05). But orthopedic surgeons had significantly lesser sons than obstetrics gynecology specialists and pediatricians (P=.002). Logistic regression analysis was performed to calculate the likelihood ratio of having a son. Being a pediatrician increased the likelihood of having a son (odds ratio: 3.813, 95% CI, 1.682-8.642, P=.001) when compared to orthopedic surgeons. There was no difference when pediatricians and obstetrics gynecology specialists were compared in terms of having a son (odds ratio: 0.962, 95% CI, 0.385-2.408, P=.935). Frequency of fluoroscopy use and having a son was analyzed among orthopedic surgeons and more than 50 shots per week decreased the likelihood of having a son among orthopedic surgeons (odds ratio: 0.353 with 95% CI, 0.178-0703, P=.030).

Conclusion: Fluoroscopy could negatively affect Y-chromosomebearing sperms, eventually resulting in orthopedic surgeons to have significantly lesser sons than obstetricians/gynecologists and pediatricians. Among orthopedic surgeons when there is an increase in the frequency of fluoroscopy, the likelihood of having sons significantly decreases. The gender of the baby depends on many factors; further studies with sperm analyses and genetic analyses could be done to enlighten this topic.

Cite this article as: Gürsu T. Do male medical doctors who are exposed to ionizing radiation have less sons? Arch Basic Clin Res 2022;4(3):125-131.