The maternal age distribution of 45,X abortuses was significantly lower than that of chromosomally normal abortuses in two co-ordinated studies. One, carried out in Geneva, included 44 X-monosomic abortuses and the other, in Hiroshima, was based on 38 abortuses with a 45,X karyotype. It was deduced that 45,X conceptuses result from either non-disjunction during paternal meiosis or anaphase lag during meiosis or mitosis, and that anaphase lag is more frequent among young couples than among older ones.