Early-life diseases linked to lifelong childlessness

Led by Aoxing Liu and senior authors Melinda Mills, Andrea Ganna and an international team, the study examined the link between 414 early-life diseases and lifetime childlessness in over 2.5 million individuals born in Finland and Sweden. In addition, several novel associations between disease and childlessness were discovered such as autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. A quarter of the 1.1 million men studied were childless compared to 16.6% of the 1.4 million women. Childless individuals were twice as likely to be single, whilst six diseases in women and 11 in men remained associated with childlessness among partnered individuals. The study, 'Evidence from Finland and Sweden on the relationship between early-life diseases and lifetime childlessness in men and women', is Open Access and appears in Nature Human Behaviour.