Everyone knows someone who spent many months of their pregnancy with their head in the toilet.
A number of large studies conducted in various countries have examined the claim, and almost all have found that severe morning sickness could mean you are having a girl.
Specific studies have found that women with morning sickness in the first trimester, and with symptoms so severe that it leads to hospitalization. This condition is known as hyperemesis gravidarum.
Epidemiologists at the University of Washington conducted the most recent study where scientists compared 2,110 pregnant women who were hospitalized with morning sickness in their first trimester and a control group of 9,783 women who did not get severely ill. Researchers found that the women in the first group were more likely to deliver a girl, and that those who were the sickest — hospitalized for three days or more — had the greatest odds: an increase of 80 percent compared with the control women.
Other studies in The Lancet and the journal Epidemiology, among others, have repeated the findings. It is thought that certain hormones produced by female fetuses may be the culprit.
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