Angelo Cagnacci of the Modena General Hospital, Italy reports in this months edition of the journal Human Reproduction that women born in Spring have a significantly longer period of fertility than those born in Autumn. He speculates that this may be a result of the fact that spring babies tend to be born with a smaller stash of eggs in their ovaries. This means they run out of eggs and consequently enter menopause earlier than autumn born women.

Just why this phenonemon exists is still a mystery however we do know that spring babies gestate largely during the winter, whereas their autumn counterparts spend summer in the womb. This points to some possible reasons

- differences in temperature,
- length of day,
- the mother's diet,
- infections

may influence the developing child

With a sample size of 3,000 post menopausal women the phenonemon is beyond doubt however whether these results from Italy will translate to other communities such as USA or Australia is debateable. The 3,000 women in question were all born in post-war Italy where access to food and general nutrition was poor. Equally, fluctuations in food quality and type across the seasons is far less these days in western countries.

Tom Kelsey, who studies human reproduction at the University of St Andrews, UK says that in todays world the most important indicator is the mother body mass index.