The sex ratios in the Caucasus are especially distorted when a second or third child is born. In Armenia, among first children, there are 138 boys for every 100 girls. If the first child is a son, the next is more likely to be a girl than a boy (ie, reverse sex selection). But if the first child is a girl, son-preference goes off the scale. When the first child is a daughter, 61% of second children are sons. Armenian parents seem to plan family composition, not just size.
As elsewhere, cheap ultrasound machines, which can detect the sex of a foetus, made a difference. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, such machines were rare because parts had military use and their export from the West was banned. As they spread after 1991, sex-selective abortions rose. Yet such machines also became more common in Ukraine and other nearby countries where sex ratios stayed stable. They rose in North Ossetia, part of the Russian Caucasus, and also in parts of Turkey, but only to 107.
