Having Sons Can Reduce A Woman's Life Expectancy

Any parent can tell you that having kids is no walk in the park. But a recent study narrows the focus, looking specifically at moms and their sons — and the facts may startle you.

If it feels like your kids are taking years off your life, you're not wrong.

Countless studies have shown the negative effects kids can have on their parents' health.

But most studies are broad, looking at kids and parents in general.

A study out of Finland looks specifically at moms and their sons.

Researchers Samuli Helle and Virpi Lummaa led the study.

They focused on villagers living in pre-industrial Finland.

The results were shocking.

Helle and Lummaa found that having sons can dramatically impact a mom's lifespan. Click ahead for the specifics!

According to the researchers, a woman's risk of death climbs by 7 percent for each son she has.

It isn't an especially high number — but considering how many families have multiple sons, that percentage can grow to be pretty significant.

Researchers examined records over a long period of time.

They looked at moms living in one of eight parishes in Finland, ranging from the 17th to the mid-20th century.

Let's consider a 37-year-old woman with six sons as an example.

Researchers found that this mom would live another 33.1 years if she had no sons, 32.7 if she had three sons, and 32.4 if she had six sons.

It might not seem like much, but the trend is impossible to deny.

The data adds to research conducted by the same authors 10 years ago, in which they found that a woman's lifespan was shortened by an average of 34 weeks for every son that she had. But what does having daughters do to a mom's lifespan?

If having sons shortens their mom's lifespan, having daughters must lengthen it, right?

Sort of, but not really. The researchers found that having daughters actually did lengthen their mom's lifespan — but not in a statistically significant way.

What about dads?

The researchers didn't find any noticeable trends of the life-shortening or life-lengthening variety when it came to fathers.

Why do these trends exist?

Really, it's anyone's guess. Researchers speculate that boys may be more of a drain on their moms because they're less likely than girls to help out with household chores. But again, it's all just speculation.

If there's one takeaway from all of this, it's not to stress!

The researchers acknowledge that their data is really just "a drop in the bucket" when it comes to the overall understanding of how kids impact their parents. It's also worth noting that you almost certainly don't fit into the demographic that they studied. So enjoy your life, enjoy your kids, and don't hesitate to get your boys to help out around the house!