Sex-sorted sperm and fertility: An alternative view

Abstract

Although contemporary methods of physically separating X from Y chromosome-bearing spermatozoa are now very efficient, overall fertility rates following the use of sex-sorted sperm are not as impressive, in spite of many attempts to improve them. At the same time, there are suggestions from evolutionary biology, and from sex allocation theory in particular, that there may need to be a modification to the chance theory of sex determination in mammals. This is because it now appears that the mammalian female could have some influence on the sex of her offspring, and furthermore, that this influence could be preconceptual. If so, this could go some way towards accounting for the putative inefficiencies in fertilization following insemination with sex-sorted sperm. © 2007 by the Society for the Study of Reproduction, Inc.