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How biological differences between men and women alter immune responses – and affect women’s health

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/helen-mcgettrick-1451122">Helen McGettrick</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-birmingham-1138">University of Birmingham</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/asif-iqbal-1451123">Asif Iqbal</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-birmingham-1138">University of Birmingham</a> Most people will have heard the term “man flu”, which refers to men’s perceived tendency to exaggerate the severity of a cold or a similar minor ailment. What most people may not know is that, generally speaking, women mount stronger <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36121220/">immune responses</a> to infections than men. Men are <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1005374">more susceptible</a> to infections from, for example, HIV, hepatitis B, and Plasmodium falciparum (the parasite responsible for malaria). They can also have more severe symptoms, with evidence showing they’re more likely to be <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1005374">admitted to hospital</a> when infected with hepatitis B, tuberculosis, and Campylobacter jejuni (a bacteria that causes gastroenteritis), among others. While this may be positive for women in some respects, it also means women are at <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nri2815">greater risk</a> of developing chronic diseases driven by the immune system, known as immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Here we will explore how biological factors influence immune differences between the sexes and how this affects women’s health. While we acknowledge that both sex and gender may affect immune responses, this article will focus on biological sex rather than gender. <h2>Battle of the sexes</h2> There are differences <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nri.2016.90">between the sexes</a> at every stage of the immune response, from the number of immune cells, to their degree of activation (how ready they are to respond to a challenge), and beyond. However, the story is more complicated than that. Our immune system evolves throughout our lives, learning from past experiences, but also responding to the physiological challenges of getting older. As a result, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nri.2016.90">sex differences</a> in the immune system can be seen from birth through puberty into adulthood and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jleukbio/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jleuko/qiad053/7190870">old age</a>. Why do these differences occur? The first part of answering this question involves the X chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y chromosome. The <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20651746/">X chromosome</a> contains the largest number of immune-related genes. The X chromosome also has <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00018-020-03526-7">around 118 genes</a> from a gene family that are able to stop the expression of other genes, or change how proteins are made, including those required for immunity. These gene-protein regulators are known as microRNA, and there are only <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24808907/">two microRNA genes</a> on the Y chromosome. The X chromosome has <a href="https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/X-Chromosome-facts">more genes overall</a> (around 900) than the Y chromosome (around 55), so female cells have evolved to switch off one of their X chromosomes. This is not like turning off a light switch, but more like using a dimmer. Around <a href="https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12864-019-5507-6">15-25% of genes</a> on the silenced X chromosome are expressed at any given moment in any given cell. This means female cells can often express more immune-related genes and gene-protein regulators than males. This generally means a faster clearance of pathogens in females than males. Second, men and women have <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.604000/full">varying levels</a> of different sex hormones. Progesterone and testosterone are broadly considered to limit immune responses. While both hormones are produced by males and females, progesterone is found at higher concentrations in non-menopausal women than men, and testosterone is much higher in men than women. The role of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6533072/">oestrogen</a>, one of the main female sex hormones, is more complicated. Although generally oestrogen <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000887491500026X?via%3Dihub">enhances immune responses</a>, its levels vary during the menstrual cycle, are high in pregnancy and low after menopause. Due in part to these genetic and hormonal factors, pregnancy and the years following are associated with heightened immune responses to external challenges such as infection. This has been regarded as an <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nri.2016.90">evolutionary feature</a>, protecting women and their unborn children during pregnancy and enhancing the mother’s survival throughout the child-rearing years, ultimately ensuring the survival of the population. We also see this pattern in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2628977/">other species</a> including insects, lizards, birds and mammals. <h2>What does this all mean?</h2> With women’s heightened immune responses to infections comes an increased risk of certain diseases and prolonged immune responses after infections. An <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3328995/">estimated 75-80%</a> of all immune-mediated inflammatory diseases <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32542149/">occur in females</a>. Diseases more common in women include multiple sclerosis, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nri2815">rheumatoid arthritis</a>, lupus, Sjogren’s syndrome, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nri.2016.90">thyroid disorders</a> such as Graves disease. In these diseases, the immune system is continuously fighting against what it sees as a foreign agent. However, often this perceived threat is not a foreign agent, but cells or tissues from the host. This leads to tissue damage, pain and immobility. Women are also prone to chronic inflammation following infection. For example, after infections with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5818468/">Epstein Barr virus</a> or <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/jwh.2008.1193">Lyme disease</a>, they may go on to develop <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-cfs/">chronic fatigue syndrome</a>, another condition that affects more women than men. This is one possible explanation for the heightened risk among <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fresc.2023.1122673/full">pre-menopausal women</a> of developing long COVID following infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. Research has also revealed the presence of auto-antibodies (antibodies that attack the host) in patients with long COVID, suggesting it might be an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568997221000550">autoimmune disease</a>. As women are more susceptible to autoimmune conditions, this could potentially explain the sex bias seen. However, the exact causes of long COVID, and the reason women may be at greater risk, are yet to be defined. This paints a bleak picture, but it’s not all bad news. Women typically mount <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24966191/">better vaccine responses</a> to several common infections (for example, influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A and B), producing higher antibody levels than men. One study showed that women vaccinated with half a dose of flu vaccine produced the same amount of antibodies compared to men vaccinated with <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/773453">a full dose</a>. However, these responses <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nri.2016.90">decline as women age</a>, and particularly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3954964/">after menopause</a>. All of this shows it’s vital to consider sex when designing studies examining the immune system and treating patients with immune-related diseases.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208802/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/helen-mcgettrick-1451122">Helen McGettrick</a>, Reader in Inflammation and Vascular Biology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-birmingham-1138">University of Birmingham</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/asif-iqbal-1451123">Asif Iqbal</a>, Associate Professor in Inflammation Biology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-birmingham-1138">University of Birmingham</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-biological-differences-between-men-and-women-alter-immune-responses-and-affect-womens-health-208802">original article</a>.

Body

Another sexist biological hypothesis debunked

For over a century, the idea of ‘<a rel="noopener" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/23/e2026112118" target="_blank">greater male variability</a>’ has been used by some biologists to explain why there are more male CEOs and political leaders than female, among other things. But a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12818" target="_blank">meta-analysis</a> in Biological Reviews has challenged this idea, finding that, in animals, greater male variability doesn’t seem to exist at all. “It’s easier to think of variability as like a spectrum or range,” explains lead author Lauren Harrison, a PhD student in biology at the Australian National University. “If you think about personalities, for example, we all fall somewhere along a spectrum that ranges from very introverted at one end, to very extroverted at the other. And so, variability is a measure of how spread out our values are altogether.” In 1871, Charles Darwin suggested that, in general, male animals had more variability in their traits than female animals, possibly because of sexual selection. The idea was almost immediately adopted by some scientists and non-scientists to explain that, because males were more variable than females, there must therefore be more ‘exceptional’ men, justifying their superior role in society. The concept has never been without its challengers, particularly among female scientists, but it’s remained pervasive. Harrison, along with colleagues at ANU, went looking for evidence of this hypothesis. She examined over 10,000 published papers from database searches on the topic, eventually narrowing the field down to 204 relevant studies on animal behaviour, covering 220 species (but not humans). Simply finding these 204 relevant studies was an effort. “I think it took me the better part of three months,” says Harrison. “And that was all that I was doing.” Once these papers were collected, the researchers used their data to examine five key behavioural traits in animals: boldness, aggressiveness, exploration, sociability and activity. <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p178706-o1" class="wpcf7"> </div> </div> And their results? “We found no evidence of greater male variability,” says Harrison. “So really, is it as general as we think? No, it’s not. So maybe it is easier to disprove than we think.” While their research didn’t include humans, Harrison says they’d be surprised to find the results differed there. “Our species covered things from dolphins to little beetles and everything in between. Fish, reptiles, birds, and even primates. “Finding no greater male variability across such a broad number of species shows that, well, in animals, we don’t really see this trend. So if we do see a trend in humans, maybe we need to ask ourselves why we’re so different – what would be causing these differences between men and women?” Current research on human variability hasn’t yielded heaps of evidence for this trend. “It’s all quite conflicting,” says Harrison. “Sometimes they find greater female variability [in humans], greater male variability or no differences. So I wouldn’t really say it’s a very well proven hypothesis at all.” She adds that this research is another indicator that social differences between men and women are more likely to have <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/culture/gender-stereotypes-stem-girls-participation/" target="_blank">cultural</a>, than biological, origins. “Instead of using biology to explain why there are more male CEOs or professors, we have to ask what role culture and upbringing play in pushing men and women down different pathways.”  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=178706&title=Greater+Male+Variability+hypothesis+challenged" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <div id="contributors"> <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/biology/greater-male-variability-hypothesis-challenged-in-new-meta-study/" target="_blank">This article</a> was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/ellen-phiddian" target="_blank">Ellen Phiddian</a>. Ellen Phiddian is a science journalist at Cosmos. She has a BSc (Honours) in chemistry and science communication, and an MSc in science communication, both from the Australian National University. Image: Getty Images </div>

Relationships

Life on Venus? Traces of phosphine may be a sign of biological activity

The discovery that the atmosphere of Venus absorbs a precise frequency of microwave radiation has just <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1174-4">turned planetary science on its head</a>. An international team of scientists used radio telescopes in Hawaii and Chile to find signs that the clouds on Earth’s neighbouring planet contain tiny quantities of a molecule called phosphine. Phosphine is a compound made from phosphorus and hydrogen, and on Earth its only natural source is tiny microbes that live in oxygen-free environments. It’s too early to say whether phosphine is also a sign of life on Venus – but no other explanation so far proposed seems to fit. This video shows how methane was detected in the atmosphere of Mars. The process is the same for finding phosphine on Venus. What makes an atmosphere? The molecular makeup of a planet’s atmosphere normally depends on what its parent star is made of, the planet’s position in its star’s system, and the chemical and geological processes that take place given these conditions. There is phosphine in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, for example, but there it’s not a sign of life. Scientists think it is formed in the deep atmosphere at high pressures and temperatures, then dredged into the upper atmosphere by a strong convection current. Join 130,000 people who subscribe to free evidence-based news. Although phosphine quickly breaks down into phosphorus and hydrogen in the top clouds of these planets, enough lingers – 4.8 parts per million – to be observable. The phosphorus may be what gives clouds on Jupiter a reddish tinge. Things are different on a rocky planet like Venus. The new research has found fainter traces of phosphine in the atmosphere, at 20 parts per billion. Lightning, clouds, volcanoes and meteorite impacts might all produce some phosphine, but not enough to counter the rapid destruction of the compound in Venus’s highly oxidising atmosphere. The researchers considered all the chemical processes they could think of on Venus, but none could explain the concentration of phosphine. What’s left? On Earth, phosphine is only produced by microbial life (and by various industrial processes) – and the concentration in our atmosphere is in the parts per trillion range. The much higher concentration on Venus cannot be ignored. Signs of life? To determine whether the phosphine on Venus is really produced by life, chemists and geologists will be trying to identify other reactions and processes that could be alternative explanations. Meanwhile, biologists will be trying to better understand the microbes that live in Venus-like conditions on Earth – high temperatures, high acidity, and high levels of carbon dioxide – and also ones that produce phosphine. When Earth microbes produce phosphine, they do it via an “anaerobic” process, which means it happens where no oxygen is present. It has been observed in places such as activated sludge and sewage treatment plants, but the exact collection of microbes and processes is not well understood. Biologists will also be trying to work out whether the microbes on Earth that produce phosphine could conceivably do it under the harsh Venusian conditions. If there is some biological process producing phosphine on Venus, it may be a form of “life” very different from what we know on Earth. Searches for life beyond Earth have often skipped over Venus, because its surface temperature is around 500℃ and the atmospheric pressure is almost 100 times greater than on Earth. Conditions are <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2017.1783">more hospitable for life</a> as we know it about 50 kilometres off the ground, although there are still vast clouds of sulfuric acid to deal with. Molecular barcodes The researchers found the phosphine using spectroscopy, which is the study of how light interacts with molecules. When sunlight passes through Venus’s atmosphere, each molecule absorbs very specific colours of this light. Using telescopes on Earth, we can take this light and split it into a massive rainbow. Each type of molecule present in Venus’ atmosphere produces a distinctive pattern of dark absorption lines in this rainbow, like an identifying barcode. This barcode is not always strongest in visible light. Sometimes it can only be detected in the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that are invisible to the human eye, such as UV rays, microwave, radio waves and infrared. The barcode of carbon dioxide, for example, is most evident in the infrared region of the spectrum. While phosphine on Jupiter was first detected in infrared, for Venus observations astronomers used radio telescopes: the <a href="https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/home/">Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array</a> (ALMA) and <a href="https://www.eaobservatory.org/jcmt/about-jcmt/">James Clerk Maxwell Telescope</a> (JCMT), which can detect the barcode of phosphine in millimetre wavelengths. New barcodes, new discoveries The discovery of phosphine on Venus relied not only on new observations, but also a more detailed knowledge of the compound’s barcode. Accurately predicting the barcode of phosphine across all relevant frequencies took <a href="http://www.tampa.phys.ucl.ac.uk/ftp/eThesis/ClaraSousaSilva2015.pdf">the whole PhD</a> of astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva in the <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/exoplanets/research/spectroscopy-exoplanets">ExoMol group</a> at University College London in 2015. She used computational quantum chemistry – basically putting her molecule into a computer and solving the equations that describe its behaviour – to predict the strength of the barcode at different colours. She then tuned her model using available experimental data before making the <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2917">16.8 billion lines of phosphine’s barcode</a> available to astronomers. Sousa-Silva originally thought her data would be used to study Jupiter and Saturn, as well as weird stars and distant “hot Jupiter” exoplanets. More recently, she led the detailed consideration of <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.05224">phosphine as a biosignature</a> – a molecule whose presence implies life. This analysis demonstrated that, on small rocky exoplanets, phosphine should not be present in observable concentrations unless there was life there as well. But she no doubt wouldn’t have dreamed of a phone call from an astronomer who has discovered phosphine on our nearest planetary neighbour. With phosphine on Venus, we won’t be limited to speculating and looking for molecular barcodes. We will be able to send probes there and hunt for the microbes directly. Written by Laura McKemmish, UNSW; Brendan Paul Burns, UNSW, and Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer, Swinburne University of Technology. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-on-venus-traces-of-phosphine-may-be-a-sign-of-biological-activity-146093">The Conversation.</a>

Art

William Tyrrell’s biological father breaks silence: “I’m so sorry”

William Tyrrell’s biological father has broken his silence and laid bare his despair in his first interview since his son disappeared without a trace four years ago. Brendan Collins has told of how he has been searching for his son in the bushland since his release from Silverwater jail two weeks ago over drugs and theft charges. Yesterday, <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/finance/legal/2018/06/police-launch-fresh-search-for-william-tyrrell/">police launched a renewed search</a> for William in the scrub in Kendell, where the toddler went missing from his foster grandmother’s front yard almost four years ago. Speaking to <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/william-tyrells-dad-brendan-collins-breaks-silence-im-so-sorry/news-story/49b2633a47220de0823c9aa8965c3474">The Daily Telegraph</a>, Mr Collins, also known as Brendan Clifford, talked directly to his son: “I’m so sorry for whoever’s done this to you William, I don’t know who took you in your Spiderman suit. “I’ve been out looking for you with a shovel digging in bushland… I know there’s no point. “I think you’re dead, I think someone has hurt you bad. I’m so sorry I couldn’t help you.” Through sobs, he continued: “I tried to run away with William when he was nine months, we were happy, just me and him for seven weeks, until DOCs took him into care. “I know I’ve had a history of drugs problems but I’d never harm my boy. “DOCS took him from me to keep him safe and now… he’s probably dead.” Brendan, who struggles with depression and is living with his mother Natalie Collins in Maryland, near Newcastle, also revealed police questioned him over his son’s disappearance. “The first person the police came looking for was me, I wasn’t with William when he went missing, he was with his foster carers in Port Macquarie,” Mr Collins said. “I’m still furious over that, what a slap in the face, I was at home in Granville. “Silverwater was self-inflicted but I’m of a healthy frame of mind now, I’m clean and off ice - I don’t even smoke cigarettes when I’m stressed anymore. “William is constantly on my mind” “I don’t know if I’ll ever find him. I’m not sure I want to.” “My parole officer wants me to see a phycologist over William, I will when I get some money because I get flashbacks of him in that Spiderman suit playing I the garden.” He believes harm came to his son days in the lead-up to William’s kidnapping. William’s abduction on September 12, 2014 sparked one of the biggest manhunts in Australian history. It is still to this day one of the nation’s most baffling missing child’s case. William was removed from his family around the age of eight months and placed with the foster care family. There is no suggestion any member of William’s foster or biological family had anything to do with his disappearance. Mr Collins and William’s mother Karlie Tyrrell both say they have suffered since losing a son. Mr Collins was released from prison this month after serving a two-month non-parole period of a seven-month sentence for theft and minor drug offences. Ms Tyrrell has a violent past with convictions for serious assaults against female police officers and destruction of property. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of missing William Tyrrell should contact Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.

Caring

William Tyrrell’s biological mother charged with multiple offences

Yesterday, the biological mother of missing boy William Tyrrell appeared in court after she was charged with multiple offences including spitting on a police officer. On December 22 last year, Kylie Tyrrell was arrested in a Ryde shopping centre after security asked for police assistance with a woman who was “acting aggressively towards customers”. A NSW Police spokesperson told <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/courts-law/william-tyrrells-mother-charged-for-spitting-on-police-officer/news-story/cadf3f99e00570b0539f9648d2d8629f" target="_blank">news.com.au</a> that the 29-year-old “allegedly repeatedly swore at the officers in the presence of two children” when the police arrived on the scene. “Police attempted to speak with the woman when she allegedly spat on the face of one of the officers,” a statement issued to news.com.au by NSW Police read. She was then taken to Ryde Police station where she was issued with a court attendance notice for assaulting an officer and using offensive language in a public setting. <img width="499" height="280" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7267234/2_499x280.jpg" alt="2 (53)"/> Yesterday, at Burwood Local Court Ms Tyrrell pleaded guilty to the charges and she will receive her sentence on Monday. These charges follow reports that William’s birth father, <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/2018/01/william-tyrrells-biological-father-is-wanted-for-arrest/" target="_blank">Brendan Collins</a>, is awaiting sentencing on minor charges. Their son William, who disappeared on September 12, 2014, remains at the centre of one of Australia’s most perplexing missing child cases. The identities of William’s birth parents were kept secret until legal bans were lifted late last year. Child Protection laws previously prevented revealing that William had been fostered out at the time of his disappearance.

News

William Tyrrell's biological father is wanted for arrest

The <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/finance/legal/2017/09/william-tyrrells-biological-father-revealed-for-first-time/" target="_blank">biological father of missing boy William Tyrrell</a> is reportedly wanted for arrest, concerning a failure to appear on court for charges related to stolen credit cards. Brendan William Collins, who was revelled to be the biological father of the boy who tragically went missing from this grandmother’s house in 2014, was arrested in November last year on the charges, and noted to be “unsteady on his feet”. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Pictured: William Tyrrell's father Brendan Collins <a href="https://t.co/kjCDCW790u">https://t.co/kjCDCW790u</a> <a href="https://t.co/9bWqult1bl">pic.twitter.com/9bWqult1bl</a> — Walkileaks (@walkileaks) <a href="https://twitter.com/walkileaks/status/907068654700949507?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2017</a></blockquote> Collins, who former partner Karlie Tyrrell is William’s biological mother, has been ruled out as a suspect in the missing child case. Last year the NSW government offered an unprecedented $1 million reward for any information that would lead to the recovered of the missing boy. What are your thoughts?

Family & Pets

Woman’s search for her biological father leads to parents’ falling in love

A woman’s quest to find her biological father has ended in an unexpected fairytale ending for her parents, who fell in love and will wed next month. Melbourne woman Emma Lennon, 34, and her mother Anna Bourke, 52, decided to track down Emma’s biological father as Emma had never met her father, “He doesn’t know I’m alive or my mum was ever pregnant,” Emma told <a href="http://www.9news.com.au/good-news/womans-search-for-her-biological-father-leads-to-parents-wedding">9News</a>. “For the first time I thought, ‘maybe it’s not fair that he’ll never find out and maybe I should do a bit of searching’. “My step-dad had been around since I was six and he’s amazing, but I thought maybe it’s not fair on the other person and I should try and find him.” Anne first met her Emma’s biological father Wayne Ferguson in the Yarrawonga Caravan Park, when they were teenagers. She was 14 and he 16. “I had this secret crush on Wayne but he didn’t know I existed,” she said. Three years later, the pair ran into each other again at a party and a “spark happened”. The couple spent some time together but eventually went their separate ways. Anne later learned she was pregnant and made the decision not to tell Wayne she was pregnant. “I was about 14 weeks pregnant when I found out,” she said. But this year, Anne and Emma decided it was time to track Wayne down. They found him on Facebook. <img width="500" height="278" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/27458/couple_500x278.jpg" alt="Couple (2)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/> “I got the phone call and it blew me out of the water, put me on top of the world, it completed me, I always wanted a daughter,” Wayne said. “I was over the moon.” Wayne and Anne spoke on the phone, spending hours catching up, before the three of them met at the pub. “I wasn’t thinking anything other than this is the moment Emma will meet her biological father,” Anne said, continuing, “But then Wayne put his hand across the table and said, ‘I want to marry you’ and I said ‘that sounds like a good idea’.” “We got to know each other, spending lots of time together, laughing, I’ve got a six-pack from all the laughing.” “It’s a bit of a fairytale,” said Anne. The couple has set a wedding date for next month. Related links: <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/2016/03/trusted-tips-for-finding-love/">6 trusted tips for finding love</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/2016/05/what-to-consider-before-dating-after-a-divorce/">5 questions to ask yourself before dating after a divorce</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/2016/05/psychologist-advice-to-get-through-a-break-up/">Breaking up doesn’t have to break you</a>

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New book claims that Ronan Farrow couldn’t be Frank Sinatra’s biological son

A new Frank Sinatra biography which will soon be released has brought forth evidence that rattles Mia Farrow’s claims that the crooner could be the father of her son, Ronan Farrow. According to the book, Sinatra: The Chairman, the second in its series by James Kaplan, Sinatra was impotent and couldn’t be Ronan’s father because he was indisposed as a result of stomach surgery at the time of Ronan’s conception. After collapsing on stage in New Jersey, doctors removed a portion of Sinatra’s intestines and, according to report, claimed he was suffering from acute diverticulitis. The biography claims that Sinatra spent the start of 1987 in Hawaii and Palm Springs, during which time “…Mia Farrow, then living in New York and in the midst of her 13-year relationship with Woody Allen, conceived [Ronan].” Ronan, born in December 1987, is legally the child of director Woody Allen. However, Mia Farrow, once married to Sinatra, brought forth controversy after responding, “Possibly” when asked by Vanity Fair if the singer could be the father of her son. Allen further fuelled rumours after telling The New York Times, “Is he my son or, as Mia suggests, Frank Sinatra's? Granted, he looks a lot like Frank with the blue eyes and facial features, but if so what does this say?” <img width="500" height="250" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/9875/o-ronan-farrow-facebook_500x250.jpg" alt="O -RONAN-FARROW-facebook" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/> <img width="500" height="323" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/9876/wenn20704781-620x400_500x323.jpg" alt="Wenn 20704781-620x 400" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/> Related links: <a href="/lifestyle/family/2015/09/retro-teenage-posters/">The best retro posters from the past</a> <a href="/lifestyle/family/2015/08/quotes-about-grandparents/">10 great quotes about being a grandparent</a> <a href="/lifestyle/family/2015/07/iconic-australian-ads/">Old-school Aussie ads that you just have to watch</a>

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How biological differences between men and women alter immune responses – and affect women’s health

Another sexist biological hypothesis debunked

Life on Venus? Traces of phosphine may be a sign of biological activity

William Tyrrell’s biological father breaks silence: “I’m so sorry”

William Tyrrell’s biological mother charged with multiple offences

William Tyrrell's biological father is wanted for arrest

Woman’s search for her biological father leads to parents’ falling in love

New book claims that Ronan Farrow couldn’t be Frank Sinatra’s biological son

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