The influence of radiation on human fertility

Summary. The number of children born to 180 females exposed to abdominal fluoroscopy in connection with an attack of intussusception in infancy or childhood was compared to the number born to women who were treated for the same disease without fluoroscopy. No difference was found between the number of children born or the age distribution of birth between the two groups. The significance in relation to the known radiation sensitivity of mice is discussed. The sex ratio in this and a comparable series shows an unexpected though statistically non-significant increase in male births. Peters & Levy (1963, 1964a, b) observed a decrease in fertility in infant mice irradiated with 20 r at varying ages shortly after birth. This decrease was most marked at the age of 3 weeks and could be recognized both as a high incidence of total sterility and as a marked decrease in total reproductive capacity in the non-sterile mice. Irradiated mice killed when the reproductive capacity was exhausted had no remaining oocytes. If the irradiation was give