Odds of Having a Boy or a Girl First Baby
Ellen Durston, a newspaper reporter in Chicago, always wanted her first child to be female. "Firstborn girls are more ambitious and confident than girls with an older sibling," contends Durston, 30, a secondborn. So when Durston and her husband decided to excogitate, she began researching methods that would improve their odds of having a daughter.
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Durston came across a technique pioneered 30 years ago by the late obstetrics researcher Landrum Shettles, Yard.D., Ph.D, who wroteHow to Cull the Sex of Your Baby. Afterwards following his advice, she became meaning with Zoe, now 2. Would Zoe take been Zachary if the couple had left information technology to hazard? Quite peradventure, by Durston's reckoning: "I'm convinced that the Shettles method is why I had a girl."
Jean and Robert Krak of McMurray, Pennsylvania had a similar feel. The proud parents of three boys, ages 7, 6, and 2, the couple "wanted a fourth child, and wondered if there was any way to slant the odds in favor of having a girl—to have the experience of raising a daughter," says Jean.
An obstetrician gave her instructions for timing fertilization, intercourse positions, and using a douche to increase her chances of having a girl. "He made no promises but said this technique had worked for others," says Jean. "We figured we'd try it, knowing that God nevertheless had the ultimate veto power." The family now includes their youngest, Angela Marie.
Dueling Theories
Gender preference is as old as conception itself, and and so are theories nigh how to brand it materialize—from ancient Talmudic advice that says if a wife'south orgasm precedes her hubby's, the babe will be a boy to Germanic folklore that suggests placing a wooden spoon under the bed ensures a daughter. In the 13th century, a Chinese scientist created a nautical chart that a adult female could apply to match her age to the calendar month of the year when she was likely to excogitate a boy or girl. Fifty-fifty in this scientific age, theories—and couples eager to examination them—abound.
Of them all, the Shettles method has the greatest post-obit. Its premise is relatively simple: The Y-chromosome-carrying sperm (the 1 that results in a boy if information technology fertilizes an egg) is smaller, lighter, and faster-moving than sperm carrying the X (or female person) chromosome. Conversely, the slower-swimming Xs are more resilient.
According to Shettles advocate Pat Buie, author ofChoose the Sexual practice of Your Baby Naturally, this means that male sperm cells move through the woman's reproductive tract faster than female person cells. In improver, an X sperm tin withstand a more acidic environment, while a Y is more probable to survive in an alkali metal surround. Accordingly, Buie counsels couples who adopt a boy to time intercourse to coincide with ovulation. This way, the swift Y sperm can beat the competition to the just-ripe egg (if the Y has to wait two days for an egg to be released, it will die).
She also recommends rear-entry lovemaking (deeper penetration deposits the sperm closer to the cervix, thus avoiding the acidic vagina) and female orgasm, which increases cervical alkalinity. To excogitate a daughter, the Shettles method advises having sexual practice no later on than ii days before ovulation (and so that just the hardy X sperm will be alive when the egg ripens); using the missionary position (so that sperm penetrate less deeply and thus are exposed longer to the vagina's acidic secretions); and delaying female orgasm until afterwards the man ejaculates.
Buie, a former nurse, maintains that the Shettles method has a 75 percent success rate overall and a 95 percent rate amid her clients. There is little research, nonetheless, to back up her assertions. In fact, some research has found that the Shettles Method may increase a couple'south chances of having the opposite sex of the ane they want. One study found that couples who followed his advice had just a 39 pct chance of conceiving the gender of their choice. That'due south less than the 50-percent chance they'd have if they permit nature take its grade.
"What Dr. Shettles proposed seems to make sense," says Masood Khatamee, Grand.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist at Mountain Sinai Beth Israel in New York Metropolis. "But when put to the examination, his methods haven't held up."
J. Martin Young, M.D., a private-exercise pediatrician in Amarillo, Texas, and author ofHow to Have a Girl and How to Have a Boy, says the flaws in Dr. Shettles's theory stem from its beingness based on bogus insemination. For couples conceiving naturally, Dr. Young prescribes the reverse course. "My method is based on the fact that at least five studies, some of which tested Dr. Shettles's theory, have found that girls are normally conceived right at ovulation and that boys are conceived iv to half-dozen days earlier and two days after ovulation," says Dr. Young.
His recommendations? Have sex within 24 hours of ovulation to increment your chances of conceiving a girl to near 55 to sixty percent; to increase your odds of conceiving a boy to about 60 to 65 percentage, take sex 4 to vi days preceding ovulation and and so abstain. The woman should remain still for xx minutes later intercourse to increment the survival of all sperm and the hazard of fertilization. In addition, employ a baking soda douche.
Among his satisfied customers are Julie and Wolf Puckett. Five years ago, the Amarillo, Texas, couple consulted Dr. Young's volume for help in conceiving a male child. The Pucketts charted Julie'south temperature to decide ovulation, and then had intercourse several days before she was set to ovulate. Subsequently, Julie raised her hips with a pillow, as Dr. Young advises. Whether by design or by chance, the organization worked. The Pucketts' son, Hunter, is at present 4.
The Ultimate Gamble
If these conflicting theories sound confusing, they are. Furthermore, there's no proof that they work any better than the wooden-spoon method. 1 of the few reputable studies on the subject, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found no correlation between gender and the timing of intercourse. "These theories but don't stand upward to scientific scrutiny," says Joshua A. Copel, M.D., a professor at Yale University School of Medicine.
Practice-it-yourself methods are best regarded as harmless fun: fine to effort, equally long every bit would-be parents are open to a kid of either sex. (Those who aren't might well question the wisdom of becoming parents at all.) "In conception, gender is ever a run a risk," Dr. Copel observes, "and you have to be willing to accept whatever yous go."
Yet there are circumstances—a gender-linked illness, for instance—when sex preselection makes medical sense, in which case parents may want to seek high-tech interventions.
Selective Services
For couples with a family history of certain diseases, gender choice is more an imperative than a preference. About 500 serious diseases, including hemophilia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, develop only in males (though females can be carriers). Increasingly, experts say, couples at risk are using applied science to avoid having a male child.
One method, called MicroSort, separates the Ten and Y sperm, and then uses the desired kind to fertilize the egg either in vitro or through artificial insemination. The Genetics and IVF Plant in Fairfax, Virginia, where it was adult, says the method boasts a 91 per centum success rate with girls and a 74 per centum rate with boys. However, after the FDA banned the use of sperm-sorting for sex activity selection in 2011, MicroSort is no longer available in the U.Southward. Instead, its labs are located in Mexico, Malaysia, North Cyprus, and Switzerland. The company offers its services to married couples interested in family balancing and to families with genetic diseases; fees start at up of $iii,000.
This story is a blended of articles reprinted with permission from the Bound 2001 event of Expecting magazine and the Apr 2003 issue of Parentsmagazine. It was updated in 2018.
Source: https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/my-baby/gender-prediction/choose-baby-gender/
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