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Sex Differences in Childlessness in Norway: Identification of Underlying Demographic Drivers

ABSTRACT: In Norway, as in many other rich countries, childlessness is more common among men than women and has also increased more among men. Over the last 15 years, the gap in childlessness between 45-year-old women and men has widened from 5.8 to 10.2 percentage points, according to national register data. In the Norwegian-born subgroup, the gap has increased by 2.4 percentage points, from 5.8 to 8.2. The goal of the study was to identify the demographic drivers of this development, using a quite simple, but original, decomposition approach. The components reflect changes in relative cohort sizes, whether the child has one native and one immigrant parent, whether the father was older than 45, and whether one of the parents already had a child, no longer lived in Norway at age 45, or was unidentified. It was found that the modestly increasing sex gap in childlessness among the Norwegian-born is largely linked to changes in cohort sizes, i.e. fertility trends. Changes in re-partnership have actually contributed weakly in the opposite direction: It has become more common especially among men to have the first child with a partner who already had a child, and thus not contribute to bringing also that person out of childlessness. The importance of the various components is different for immigrants, among whom the sex gap in childlessness has increased particularly much. This development may also reflect that especially male immigrants perhaps have children in the home country who are not included in the Norwegian register.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-021-09590-4.

SUBMITTER: Kravdal Ø

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8575743 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Although sex differences in the brain are prevalent, the knowledge about mechanisms underlying sex-related effects on normal and pathological brain functioning is rather poor. It is known that female and male brains differ in size and connectivity. Moreover, those differences are related to neuronal morphology and activity, synapse molecular organization, synaptic plasticity, and molecular signalling pathways. Among different processes assuring proper synapse function are posttranslational modifications, and among them, S-palmitoylation emerges as a crucial mechanism underlying synaptic integrity. Protein S-palmitoylation (S-PALM) refers to the covalent attachment of palmitic acid (C16:0) to cysteine residue(s) via the formation of a thioester bond. Protein S-PALM is governed by a family of PATs, also known as DHHC proteins. Here we focused on the sex-related functional importance of DHHC7 acyltransferase. Under physiological conditions, DHHC7 emerges of particular interest because it palmitoylates various synaptic proteins involved in the regulation of cellular polarity and proliferation as well as in stress and anxiety-related pathology. Moreover, DHHC7 is responsible for S-PALM of sex steroid receptors. Functionally, S-PALM of these receptors regulates their trafficking to the plasma membrane as well as their rapid responses to sex steroid hormones. Using mass spectrometry-based method PANIMoni we identified sex-dependent differences in the S-palmitoylation of synaptic proteins, potentially involved in the regulation of passive membrane properties and excitability (e.g. potassium voltage-gated channels), synaptic transmission (e.g. subunits of glutamate or kainate receptors, voltage-dependent calcium channels) as well as signalling proteins involved in structural plasticity of dendritic spines (e.g. G-proteins and Rab GTPase). Furthermore, to determine a mechanistic source for sex-dependent changes in protein S-palmitoylation we used synaptoneurosomes from DHHC-7 knock-out -/- (DHHC7 KO) female and male mice. Our data showed sex-dependent action of DHHC-7 acyltransferase. Such discovery will facilitate the development of novel and targeted treatments congruous with biological sex.

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Sex Differences in Childlessness in Norway: Identification of Underlying Demographic Drivers

Supplementary Information

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