之前研究发现，与无名指较长的男人相比，无名指和食指一样长的男人更可能面临生育问题。研究人员发现，通过辅助生殖技术诞生的男孩(试管婴儿)可能面临同样的问题。
这种方法叫卵胞浆内单精子注射技术，也称ICSI，是把单个精子直接注入卵子中。这种技术现在越来越多地用于那些少精、精子成活率较低或精子畸形的男性。这种技术在20世纪90年代早期才得以推广，因此通过这种方法诞生的孩子现在还未到结婚生子的年龄。研究人员表示，因为与自然受孕产下的孩子相比，借助卵胞浆内单精子注射技术生下的男孩的无名指相对食指较短，这说明他们遗传了父亲的生育问题。
这份研究报告的第一作者、儿童健康研究所的儿科医生阿拉斯泰尔·苏切克利夫指出，卵胞浆内单精子注射技术应只在绝对需要的情况下使用。苏切克利夫的这一研究发表在《生殖生物医学在线》（Reproductive Biomedicine Online）杂志上。他说：“这是关于这类儿童的第一份研究，我们目前还不清楚这一发现的意义，因为儿童还很小，但是我们需要告知人们卵胞浆内单精子注射技术的可能风险。”
手指的长度被认为由胎儿在母亲子宫内接触的睾丸激素决定，还与子女是否抑郁和是否具有攻击性相关。英国生殖学会发言人、设菲尔德大学男性不育资深专家艾伦·帕西称，卵胞浆内单精子注射技术应该只用于“绝对需要的情况下”。（生物谷Bioon.com）
手指与性能力联系
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Reproductive BioMedicine Online doi:10.1016/j.rbmo.2009.12.013
Assessment of vision and hearing in children conceived spontaneously and by ICSI: a prospective controlled, single-blinded follow-up study
A.K. Ludwiga, , , A. Hansenb, A. Katalinicc, A.G. Sutcliffed, K. Diedriche, M. Ludwiga and Thyen Uteb
a Zentrum für Hormon- und Stoffwechselerkrankungen, Reproduktionsmedizin und Pr?natale Medizin, Endokrinologikum Hamburg, Lornsenstr 4–6, 22767 Hamburg, Germany
b Department of Paediatrics, Medical University of Lübeck, Germany
c Institute of Cancer Epidemiology and Institute of Social Medicine, Medical University of Lübeck, Germany
d Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Medical University of Lübeck, Germany
e Institute of Child Health, University College London, London WC1N 1EH, UK
Long-term follow-up studies on the health of children born after assisted reproduction technologies are mandatory. Vision and hearing are the most important senses that continue to develop during childhood. There are few reports on vision and hearing in preschool children born after assisted conception. This prospective controlled blinded follow-up study examined 276 term-born singleton intracytoplasmic injection (ICSI) children and 273 spontaneously conceived controls at a mean age of 5.5 years and performed detailed vision and hearing test and clinically examined eyes and ears. There was no significant difference between ICSI and control children regarding the occurrence of vision or hearing impairments. Unsurprisingly, children with abnormalities in otoscopy were more likely to have an abnormal hearing test compared with children without abnormalities. Only 8.5% of ICSI parents and 25.4% of control parents whose children showed an abnormal hearing test knew about the hearing problems of their child. In conclusion, there was no difference in the development of hearing and vision in ICSI children and spontaneously conceived controls. But only few parents knew about hearing problems of their child after undergoing routine screening examinations. Parental interviews would therefore not be sufficient in order to assess vision and hearing in follow-up studies.
