Increased reproductive success of women after prenatal undernutrition

Prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine is associated with an increased risk of chronic degenerative disease. We now investigate whether prenatal famine exposure affected reproductive success.

We assessed reproductive success (number of children, number of twins, age at delivery, childlessness) of men and women born around the time of the Dutch famine of 1944-1945 in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis, Amsterdam, whose birth records have been kept.

Women who were exposed to the Dutch famine of 1944-1945 in utero are more reproductively successful than women who were not exposed to famine during their fetal development; they have more offspring, have more twins, are less likely to remain childless and start reproducing at a younger age. The increased reproductive success of these women is unlikely to be explained by genes which favor fertility and are passed from mothers to their daughters. In utero exposure to famine did not affect the reproductive success of males.

These findings suggest that poor nutrition during fetal development, followed by improved nutrition after birth can give rise to a female phenotype characterized by greater reproductive success.