Reproduction

With children and reproduction comes Family Planning. Pawns can have kids from 18 years on, until their fertility drops to 0. During this time, you can modify a human's fertility through many methods, whether you are hoping for kids or set on having none. There are also many ways to reproduce, from natural, to surrogate, to artificial. A well-resourced player has a lot of control over this process.

Pawns' chance of getting pregnant is affected by their fertility stat (affected by age and genes), their contraceptive methods, sleeping habits, and the player-set strategy on having kids.

Fertility

Fertility is the main stat affecting pregnancy chances. Natural pregnancy explains how fertility rises and falls over time. Fertility affects more than just the chance of a pregnancy after pawns initiate Lovin'. For instance, once a woman becomes infertile, or sterile, you can no longer perform the operation "Extract ovum for IVF", to initiate a surrogate or artificial pregnancy.

Fertility is affected by several genes: it can be increased with the Fertile gene, or decreased with the Sterile gene.

Chances of Natural Pregnancy

The chance of a female pawn getting pregnant is affected by how often they do Lovin', and how fertile the pawns involved in the Lovin' are. After heterosexual pawns do Lovin', there is a chance the female pawn will get pregnant. The base chance can be seen by multiplying each pawn's fertility stats together. You can see this stat in the pawns' info panel, in the Stats>>Basics section. Beyond this, the player can set baby controls for each relationship, preferencing a higher or lower chance of pregnancy. Finally, the rate at which different couples do Lovin' varies drastically, and the player has some control over this.

Therefore, the total chance of pregnancy in one relationship is likely: total chance = fertility x baby strategy x times Lovin'

The actual chance that a pair of pawns will do Lovin' each night varies by several factors. If they're in the same bed and sleep at the same time, their chance of Lovin' varies by age, as seen in this chart. Additionally, their chances are affected by their libidos, which can be altered from the default by the low libido and high libido genes. There have been reports that colonist mood and opinions of each other also influence the chance of doing Lovin'.

Baby Controls

The player has three options to adjust pregnancy rates from Lovin' in any relationship. By opening the social tab, to the right of a Lover, Fiancee, or Spouse, you can see a button that lets you change the couple's strategy for having kids.

By default, it is a hollow heart, with no preference for any pregnancy outcomes, and no affect on fertility.

If you change it to the sperm symbol, making the couple try for kids, their chance of pregnancy will be four times higher.

If you change it to the ban symbol, they will avoid pregnancy, with the chance getting four times smaller. If you're really worried about pregnancy and don't have the resources for contraceptives, you could place your now-unhappy couple in different beds so they won't do lovin' in the first place.

Contraceptives

There are many surgical methods for altering a pawn's fertility, affecting their chances of natural pregnancy. Some of these are revocable, allowing for pregnancy at a later time, but they have a slight chance of causing permanent sterility if a surgery is botched. You can access these medical operations after researching Fertility procedures.

IUD

You can stop a woman from becoming pregnant with the "Implant IUD" operation, which stops pregnancies in the first trimester. One can be placed indefinitely, with the operation requiring 1 medicine. You can later remove it through the "Remove IUD" medical operation, using a qualified doctor and 1 medicine. Women may embark with IUDs already implanted. If either of these operations is botched, the patient will become permanently sterile.

Vasectomy

Like an IUD, this is a semi-permanent way to make a pawn unable to reproduce. The health operation "Perform vasectomy", can be done on any adult male. It requires 1 medicine and is performed like a surgery. The vasectomy can be undone later through the "Reverse vasectomy" operation, also requiring 1 medicine. Both of these operations cause permanent sterility if botched.

Tubal Ligation

This permanently stops a female from being able to reproduce. "Perform tubal ligation" is a medical operation requiring 1 medicine.

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Biotech (DLC)

Families

Relationships (Reproduction • Children)
Life stages (Babies • Children • Adults)
Furniture (Crib • Baby sleeping spot • Growth vat • Toy box • Baby decoration • School desk • Blackboard)

Mechanoids

Laborers (Agrihand • Cleansweeper • Constructoid • Fabricor • Lifter • Paramedic • Tunneler)
Combatants (Centurion • Legionary • Militor • Scorcher • Tesseron)
Commanders (Apocriton • Diabolus • War queen • War urchin)

Mechanitors

Control (Mechlink • Band node • Mech boosters • Mech signallers • Control pack • Airwire headset)
Mechanoid creation (Basic subcore • Standard subcore • High subcore • Subcore encoder • Subcore softscanner • Subcore ripscanner • Mech gestator)
Maintenance (Mech recharger)

Genetics

Xenohumans (Dirtmoles • Genies • Highmates • Hussars • Impids • Neanderthals • Pigskins • Sanguophages • Wasters • Yttakin)
Genes Germline • Xenogene • Metabolic efficiency
Genetic Modification Genepack • Gene extractor • Gene bank • Gene assembler • Gene processor • Xenogerm • Archite capsules
Deathrest (Deathrest accelerator • Deathrest capacity serum • Deathrest casket • Glucosoid pump • Hemogen amplifier • Hemopump • Psychofluid pump)

Pollution

Nature (Toxalope • Toxipotato plant • Waste rat • Gray pine tree • Pebble cactus • Rat palm tree • Witchwood tree • Stasis cocoon)
Mitigation (Wastepacks • Atomizers • Pollution pumps • Polux trees)
Adaptation Face mask • Gas mask • Tox grenades • Tox pack • Tox shell • Toxic needle gun • Toxbomb launcher • Detoxifier kidney • Detoxifier lung
Nonchalance Toxifier generator