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Fact Check: Study did not find women ‘store’ DNA from intercourse with men
By Reuters Fact Check
January 24, 20249:45 AM CSTUpdated 6 months ago
A 2012 study did not find that women “store” men’s DNA after sexual intercourse, as suggested by an old headline, which recently resurfaced online, from a defunct website that repeatedly published misinformation.
Both the 2012 study cited in the 2018 article, and another study from 2005 by one of the same authors, speculated about the possibility - yet to be explored - that male DNA found in a woman’s bloodstream (a phenomenon known as “microchimerism”) could be partly due to intercourse, among other already-known sources, according to two of the authors.
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“Thus, it is erroneous and misleading to state that intercourse leads to microchimerism,” William F. N. Chan, an author of the 2012 study, said in an email.
A recent Facebook post, opens new tab shares an image with the headline “Women Store DNA From Every Man They’ve Ever Made Love With, Study Finds” that dates from a May 20, 2018, opens new tab, article by Neon Nettle, an online publication that no longer exists, but which previously published false, opens new tab reports.
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Reuters Image
An image in the circulating post of two men with a young girl between them is labeled to suggest that one man, a prior partner of the girl’s mother, is the child’s real father.
The Neon Nettle article cites a study led by Chan titled, “Male Microchimerism in the Human Female Brain, opens new tab” published in 2012. Microchimerism, opens new tab refers to the presence of cells in an individual that are from another individual. The authors note that the presence of male cells in women’s bodies is already established as being linked to prior pregnancies with a male fetus or transfer from a male sibling in utero, for example.
They describe male DNA found in the brains of women in their study as “most likely” from prior pregnancy with a male fetus and do not conclude or mention that women store DNA from males acquired through intercourse.
“In our study as well as others done prior, we merely speculate the establishment of microchimerism through intercourse,” Chan told Reuters. “That is, the possibility exists but it has not been tested (or proven, as the lay person may say).”
Dr. J. Lee Nelson, another author of the 2012 study, addressed the storage claim in a 2018 interview, opens new tab with Business Insider. “Any suggestion that male DNA is routinely retained from sexual partners has no support from any scientific study,” Nelson said, adding that while some studies mention the possibility, it has not been tested.
A 2005 study by Nelson and colleagues that looked for male DNA in women’s blood is also cited by the Neon Nettle article, but that study also only speculates about sex as a possible source of the DNA.
The 2005 study, opens new tab lists the more likely sources first, including known pregnancies with a male fetus, unrecognized spontaneous abortion, a vanished male twin or cells from an older brother in the woman’s mother’s bloodstream that were transferred to the daughter while she was in utero.
“Another possibility that has not been investigated is whether male DNA can be detected in a woman’s circulation from sexual intercourse without pregnancy,” the study authors wrote.
Chan said that even today, there is still no “recent peer-reviewed study that directly addresses this possibility. In other words, the claim remains false.”
(Updated on Jan. 24 to correct author affiliation in paragraph 3)
VERDICT
False. A 2012 study did not find that women store male DNA from sexual intercourse.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
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