A boy’s testosterone levels in the womb may affect the adult life of his twin sister, according to a study published yesterday (March 18) in PNAS.
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Researchers analyzed Norwegian information on nearly 730,000 Norwegians, including 13,800 twins, born between 1967 and 1978. After controlling for birth weight, maternal education, and other factors, the team found that women who shared the womb with a male twin were 15 percent less likely to graduate from high school, 4 percent less likely to finish college, and 12 percent less likely to be married than women who share the womb with a twin sister. Women with a male twin also had fewer children and earned less money.
Even women whose twin died during the pregnancy or shortly after followed the trend, leading the scientists to suspect that exposure to testosterone—which a male fetus begins to produces in massive amounts around ...
