Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-jkvpf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-17T23:09:15.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The pregnancy compensation hypothesis, not the staying alive theory, accounts for disparate autoimmune functioning of women around the world

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2022

Erin M. O'Mara Kunz Open the ORCID record for Erin M. O'Mara Kunz [Opens in a new window] ,
Jackson A. Goodnight  and
Melissa A. Wilson
Erin M. O'Mara Kunz
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469, USA ekunz1@udayton.edu jgoodnight1@udayton.edu https://sites.google.com/udayton.edu/erinomarakunz
Jackson A. Goodnight
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469, USA ekunz1@udayton.edu jgoodnight1@udayton.edu https://sites.google.com/udayton.edu/erinomarakunz
Melissa A. Wilson
Affiliation:
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA mwilsons@asu.edu www.sexchrlab.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The pregnancy compensation hypothesis provides a mechanistic explanation for the evolution of sex differences in immune system functioning, the excess of women experiencing autoimmune disease, and why this is observed only in industrialized nations; none of which can be explained by the staying alive theory, as proposed by the authors of the target article.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e145
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adebajo, A. O. (1997). Low frequency of autoimmune disease in tropical Africa. The Lancet, 349(9048), 361–362. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(05)62867-XCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benenson, J., Webb, C. E., & Wrangham, R. W. (this issue). Self-protection as an adaptive female strategy. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1–86.Google Scholar
Bongaarts, J., & Blanc, A. K. (2015). Estimating the current mean age of mothers at the birth of their first child from household surveys. Population Health Metrics, 13, 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-015-0058-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, A. (1999). Staying alive: Evolution, culture, and women's intrasexual aggression. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(2), 203–214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, I. A., Al-Yaman, F. M., Cowden, W. B., & Rockett, K. A. (1996). Does malarial tolerance, through nitric oxide, explain the low incidence of autoimmune disease in tropical Africa? The Lancet, 348(9040), 1492–1494. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(96)07342-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gleicher, N., Weghofer, A., & Barad, D. H. (2012). Cutting edge assessment of the impact of autoimmunity on female reproductive success. Journal of Autoimmunity, 38(2–3), J74–J80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gurven, M. (2012). Infant and fetal mortality among a high fertility and mortality population in the Bolivian Amazon. Social Science & Medicine, 75(12), 2493–2502. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.09.030CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haller-Kikkatalo, K., Salumets, A., & Uibo, R. (2012). Review on autoimmune reactions in female infertility: Antibodies to follicle stimulating hormone. Clinical and Developmental Immunology, 2012, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jørgensen, K. T., Pedersen, B. V., Nielsen, N. M., Jacobsen, S., & Frisch, M. (2012). Childbirths and risk of female predominant and other autoimmune diseases in a population-based Danish cohort. Journal of Autoimmunity, 38(2–3), J81–J87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaut.2011.06.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathews, T. J., & Hamilton, B. E. (2016). Mean age of mothers is on the rise: United States, 2000–2014. NCHS Data Brief, 232, 8.Google Scholar
Mouton, A., Blanc, F., Gros, A., Manera, V., Fabre, R., Sauleau, E., … David, R. (2018). Sex ratio in dementia with Lewy bodies balanced between Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease dementia: A cross-sectional study. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, 10(1), 92. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-018-0417-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease. (2019). Rheumatoid Arthritis: In-Depth.Google Scholar
Natri, H., Garcia, A. R., Buetow, K. H., Trumble, B. C., & Wilson, M. A. (2019). The pregnancy pickle: Evolved immune compensation due to pregnancy underlies sex differences in human diseases. Trends in Genetics, 12, 478–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ngo, S. T. (2014). Gender differences in autoimmune disease. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 23, 347–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pariona, A. (2017). Countries With The Youngest Mother's Average Age At First Birth. WorldAtlas. April 25. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-lowest-mother-s-mean-age-at-first-birth.htmlGoogle Scholar
Strachan, D. P. (1989). Hay fever, hygiene, and household size. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 299(6710), 1259–1260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
The World Bank. (2022). Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15–19), Data. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.ADO.TFRT?most_recent_value_desc=trueGoogle Scholar
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2022). UN list of least developed countries, UNCTAD. https://unctad.org/topic/least-developed-countries/listGoogle Scholar
United Nations Population Division (2021). Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15–19), Data. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.ADO.TFRTGoogle Scholar