Smoking parents stub out sons

COUPLES who smoke around the time they conceive their child are almost twice as likely to have a girl, according to new research, which suggests tobacco "kills" male fetuses.

The startling results could encourage would-be parents to start smoking to increase their chances of a daughter, an Australian fertility expert fears.

Researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Britain found rates of female offspring were dramatically higher among smokers.

An analysis of 9000 pregnancies at the hospital between 1998 and 2003 found smokers were one-third less likely to have a boy than non-smokers.

When the father also smoked the chance of having a boy was cut almost in half.

Researchers believe chemicals such as nicotine, inhibit sperm carrying male chromosomes from fertilising eggs.

The Fertility Society of Australia's Dr Anne Clark warned parents against smoking to "get them what they want".

"If a father smokes to get a girl, that girl is four times more likely to get cancer than if he didn't," Dr Clark said.

"And the mother is going to be three times more likely to have a fertility problem, and twice as likely to have a miscarriage, if she takes up the habit around the time of conception. So the message is: don't smoke at all if you want a child."