Scientists have discovered that a sizeable minority of women have Y-chromosome gene sequences in their blood. As you may already know, Y-chromosomes belong to men, not women, so we must ask: What are they doing there, and where did they come from?
Conducted by immunologists at the Fred Hutchinson Caner Center in 2004, the study took samples from 120 women who had never had sons. They found that 21% of these women had male DNA. The women were then categorized into four groups, according to pregnancy history: Group A had had only daughters, Group B had had one or more miscarriage(s), Group C had induced abortions, and Group D had never been pregnant before. The prevalence of male michrochimerism was considerably greater in Group C, although it was still present in each group: Group A showed 8%, Group B showed 22%, Group C showed 57%, and Group D showed 10%.
According to Your Newswire reports, this male DNA happen to be genetically distinct from the cells that make up the rest of the woman. Following a careful study, the researchers found that the male DNA in those women’s brains were from present or past lovers. The DNA was genetically fused to the women’s brain, and will be there for her entire life.
The discovery was reportedly made by accident. The researchers had originally been trying to determine if women who have been pregnant with a son might be more predisposed to certain neurological diseases that occur more frequently in males. To do this, the scientists had to pick apart the female brain and in so doing they discovered that the female brains often harbor “male microchimerism“. This means the presence of male DNA that originated from another individual.
At first, the researchers assumed the male DNA found in the female brain were from a male pregnancy but when an autopsy was carried out of the brains of women who had never been pregnant, let alone have a male child, the same male DNA were found in their brains. This led to great confusion and the scientists concluded that the male DNA were left in the women by every man they have ever had sex with. The study concluded that sperms are living cells and every time a woman’s body absorbs spermatozoa from a man, it becomes a living part of her for her entire life.
“Sperm is alive. It is living cells. When it is injected into you it swims and swims until it crashes headlong into a wall, and then it attaches and burrows into your flesh. If it’s in your mouth it swims and climbs into your nasal passages, inner ear, and behind your eyes. Then it digs in. It enters your blood stream and collects in your brain and spine.”
NOTE: Please see below what FACT CHECK by Snopes.com which contradicts this study says:
On 23 June 2017, frequent purveyor of misinformation YourNewsWire.com posted an article (“Women Absorb and Retain DNA from Every Man They Have Sex With”) that made the claim that “a new study” demonstrates that cells transferred from a man to a woman during intercourse become integrated into that woman’s body after sex. Every single time.
In actuality, however, that study (which was published in PLOS ONE in 2012, despite being billed as “new” in 2017) demonstrated for the first time the presence of genetically distinct male cells in the brains of women (who had been examined in autopsy). The existence of male cells in the bodies of females, in general, is not news. As discussed in a PLOS ONE blog post describing that 2012 study, their presence is typically ascribed to cells from a male fetus from a prior pregnancy:
The idea of two genetically distinct populations of cells, or their DNA, residing in one individual isn’t new. It’s called microchimerism. […] Medical chimerism arises after a transfusion or transplant, and it may follow pregnancy. Our microbiomes, the bacteria within us, are more like guests than body parts.
[The research groups responsible for the 2012 study] found Y chromosome DNA sequences in several brain regions in autopsy slides from 37 out of 59 women. Such DNA liberated from fetal cells can come from several sources: children, fetuses that never made it to be born, older siblings, or twins. Both son and daughter DNA partake in this “feto-maternal trafficking,” but female DNA, at the chromosomal level, is harder to detect amid the maternal two X’s.
The most likely source of male [microchimerism, Mc] in female brain is acquisition of fetal Mc from pregnancy with a male fetus. In women without sons, male DNA can also be acquired from an abortion or a miscarriage. The pregnancy history was unknown for all but a few subjects in the current studies, thus male Mc in female brain could not be evaluated according to specific prior pregnancy history. In addition to prior pregnancies, male Mc could be acquired by a female from a recognized or vanished male twin, an older male sibling, or through non-irradiated blood transfusion.
Snopes.com rated the claim as FALSE.
Credit for the Study and its fact check: Fred Hutchinson Caner Center, Your Newswire, Snopes.com