Elsevier

Medical Hypotheses

Volume 54, Issue 5, May 2000, Pages 855-857
Medical Hypotheses

Regular Article
The ratio of 2nd to 4th digit length: A new predictor of disease predisposition?

https://doi.org/10.1054/mehy.1999.1150Get rights and content

Abstract

The ratio between the length of the 2nd and 4th digits is: (a) fixed in utero; (b) lower in men than in women; (c) negatively related to testosterone and sperm counts; and (d) positively related to oestrogen concentrations. Prenatal levels of testosterone and oestrogen have been implicated in infertility, autism, dyslexia, migraine, stammering, immune dysfunction, myocardial infarction and breast cancer. We suggest that 2D:4D ratio is predictive of these diseases and may be used in diagnosis, prognosis and in early life-style interventions which may delay the onset of disease or facilitate its early detection.

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    They show that this biomarker is a potentially useful indicator that may be associated with gestational T levels, T/E, or prenatal hormonal disruption of the uterine microenvironment [17]. Manning and Bundred [19], in 2000, suggested that the intra-uterine hormonal environment is associated with the etiology of several adult-onset diseases and that digital ratio is predictive of some diseases [19]. A review carried out in 2014 [20] highlights three fronts of studies on 2D:4D: psychological traits, body performance and susceptibility to diseases in adult life [20].

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    Higher androgen and also estrogen receptor activity has been shown in digit 4 than in digit 2, and the growth of the fourth digit under the influence of the balance between androgen and estrogen activity may therefore affect gender differences in the 2D: 4D ratio [12,13]. The fourth digit is usually longer than the second digit in males, while the second digit is longer than or equal to the fourth digit in females, which in turn results in lower 2D:4D ratios in males [12–14]. In our study, fourth digit lengths were significantly longer and 2D:4D ratios were significantly lower in female MS patients than in the control group, which also confirmed the effect of the length of the fourth digit in determining the ratio.

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