'Sex selection drugs linked with deformities in babies'

[link to timesofindia.indiatimes.com]

CHANDIGARH: Lack of acceptance of the girl child in society has led to adoption of many dangerous or illegal practices. While awareness campaigns
and strict laws against female foeticide may have made that option hard to follow, many people are choosing a new path to sex selection of babies - ayurveda.

Chinmayee Panda of School of Public Health at PGI said, “The preference for sons is not only leading to adverse sex ratio, but use of ayurvedic sex selection drugs (SSDs) is also causing an increase in occurrence of congenital malformation (CMF) in North India. Use of such drugs puts the new born babies at four times higher risk of CMF.”

She added that shivlingi (Bryonia laciniosa linn) containing testosterone and majuphal (Quercus infectoria), which has natural steroids, were being used for sex selection purposes.

Panda added that CMF led to 15% of perinatal mortality. She said that a hospital-based case control study was conducted at Advanced Pediatric Centre, obstetrics and gynaecology department and special clinics in PGI in 2008.

There were two groups in the study. While one of them had 203 children of ages five and below, who had CMF, the other group had same number of children without CMF. Mothers of all the children were interviewed to collect information about factors leading to CMF.

The study found that 83 of the 203 mothers in the first group had consumed SSDs.

The CMF-affected children suffered from congenital deafness, absence of lobes of lungs, gall bladder and other syndromic anomalies. Sexual deformities were found in 9% of the cases.

SSDs were associated mostly with cases of genital and urinary anomalies. Digestive anomalies, cleft lip, cleft palate and cardiovascular anomalies were the other conditions linked with consumption of the drugs.

Panda said that it was not just the middle and lower middle class people who tried to go in for sex selection, but many educated persons like doctors and lawyers also tried to ensure that they have sons.

Other risk factors included father taking alcohol or smoking. Women, who got married at less than 18 years of age or had a history of abortion, also ran the risk of giving birth to babies with CMF, the study found.

In the CMF group, boys outnumbered girls by a ratio of 2.6:1.

Cardiovascular malformations were commonest followed by those of gastrointestinal, genitourinary and nervous systems.

Last Edited by falldown on 06/20/2009 08:21 PM