WOMEN OUTNUMBER MEN IN CNMI Where have all the boys gone?

There are pressing things that could make members of the female sector deeply worried: “Women have been consistently outnumbering their male counterparts. ”

The CNMI Central Statistics Division observes a disturbing disparity in the population of males and females in different age brackets, with official data disclosing that there are now fewer males than females in the Northern Marianas.

The islands were a home to 29,570 females and to only 29,276 males five years ago, which indicate that there were actually 99 males for every 100 females. Normally, the live birth sex ratio is 106 males born for every 100 females.

Females have outnumbered males from the 15-19 through 25-29 and 70-above age brackets. The male-female ratio was lowest in Saipan in age group 20-24 years old. In Rota, females outnumbered their men only in the 20-24, 60-64 and in 75-above age brackets.

The biggest male-female population count discrepancy was recorded in Tinian in the 45-49 age bracket, according to official records obtained from the Department of Commerce.

The same report disclosed that men have actually dominated the population count in the CNMI since 1980 when there were 8,817 males compared to 7,963 females. In 1990, Northern Marianas was already a home to 22,802 men and 20,543 women.

Population experts, however, said there are more disturbing issues behind the depleting male population than the difficulty of finding a Mr. Right to march to the altar with.

During the past 20 years, the male proportions of live births have been declining in Canada and the United States. Other studies point to similar 20-year declines in the male proportion live births in England, Wales, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and other developed countries.

In the U.S., 38,000 baby boys were replaced by baby girls during the last 20 years. In Canada, approximately 8,600 males have not been born during the last two decades and in their place were females.

Although the declines in the male proportion of births are not large, there is a very serious side to these small shifts in sex ratio.

Studies are now being carried out by researchers from the U.S. and Denmark to determine the link between the pattern of declining male proportion of births and the similar pattern of increasing birth defects of the penis and testicles, increasing testicular cancer, and declining quality and quantity of sperm.

Observations are rife that these patterns have something to do with exposures to hormone-disrupting chemicals including dioxin, pesticides, lead, solvents and smoke stack emissions from smelters and incinerators.

Scientists from the U.S. and Denmark are looking at the possibility that these relevant exposures are most likely taking place before birth, in the mother’s womb.

An environmental epidemiologist at the World Research Institute, Devra Lee Davis said the reduction in the proportion of males born could indicate that environmental health hazards are affecting the sex ratio births and other defects in male reproduction.

At the moment of conception, all embryos are destined to be female unless something changes them into males. This means that we all actually start out female by default. For the first six to nine weeks of life, we all have unisex gonads.

“Between the 6th and 9th week, the gonads of those with Y chromosomes specialize into testicles and begin producing hormones that continue the process of creating a male. If anything interferes at this stage, a female may result,” Ms. Davis explained.

Thus, sex is determined by tiny amounts of hormones circulating in the blood of the embryo. This situation provides opportunities for chemicals entering the mother’s body to disrupt normal processes.

Researchers consider many other factors that can reduce the proportion of male live births, including age differences between the parents, stressed mother, less-frequent intercourse, and test-tube fertilization.

In the CNMI, the decline in the number of male population may also be attributed to the huge migration of foreign workers into the islands between 1980 and 1995. The characteristics of these migrant workers were combined with local population and resulted in major shifts such as significant difference in the number of married males and married females; high proportion of females employed; a higher median age; and a high male-female ratio.

And if the declining male proportion of live births is not yet enough, the statistics division has another bad news: More males than females died in the CNMI each year since 1991.

In 1993, 103 males died compared with 61 from the female sector. Over 100 men died in 1995 while 67 women died in the same year. By end-1996, the male population decreased due to 101 deaths as against the 64 deaths in their female counterpart.