Are You Able to Figure Out the Gender of Your Baby After a D&c

Ellen Durston, a newspaper reporter in Chicago, always wanted her offset kid 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 girl.

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Durston came across a technique pioneered thirty years ago by the tardily obstetrics researcher Landrum Shettles, M.D., Ph.D, who wroteHow to Choose the Sexual activity of Your Infant. After post-obit his advice, she became pregnant with Zoe, now 2. Would Zoe have been Zachary if the couple had left information technology to chance? Quite perhaps, past 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 3 boys, ages 7, half-dozen, and two, the couple "wanted a fourth child, and wondered if at that place was any way to camber the odds in favor of having a girl—to take the experience of raising a daughter," says Jean.

An obstetrician gave her instructions for timing fertilization, intercourse positions, and using a douche to increment 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 however had the ultimate veto power." The family now includes their youngest, Angela Marie.

Dueling Theories

Gender preference is every bit old as conception itself, and so are theories about how to brand it materialize—from ancient Talmudic advice that says if a wife's orgasm precedes her husband's, the baby will exist 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 chart that a woman could utilize to match her age to the month of the year when she was probable to conceive a boy or daughter. Fifty-fifty in this scientific age, theories—and couples eager to test them—grow.

Of them all, the Shettles method has the greatest following. Its premise is relatively unproblematic: The Y-chromosome-carrying sperm (the one that results in a boy if it fertilizes an egg) is smaller, lighter, and faster-moving than sperm carrying the Ten (or female) chromosome. Conversely, the slower-swimming Xs are more resilient.

According to Shettles advocate Pat Buie, author ofCull the Sex of Your Infant Naturally, this ways that male sperm cells move through the woman's reproductive tract faster than female cells. In addition, an 10 sperm tin can withstand a more acidic environment, while a Y is more likely to survive in an element of group i environment. Appropriately, Buie counsels couples who prefer a boy to fourth dimension intercourse to coincide with ovulation. This way, the swift Y sperm can crush the competition to the just-ripe egg (if the Y has to wait two days for an egg to be released, it will dice).

She also recommends rear-entry lovemaking (deeper penetration deposits the sperm closer to the cervix, thus fugitive the acidic vagina) and female orgasm, which increases cervical alkalinity. To excogitate a daughter, the Shettles method advises having sex no later than two days before ovulation (and so that but the hardy X sperm volition exist 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 person orgasm until subsequently the man ejaculates.

Buie, a onetime nurse, maintains that the Shettles method has a 75 percent success rate overall and a 95 percent rate amongst her clients. There is piddling research, however, to back up her assertions. In fact, some research has constitute that the Shettles Method may increase a couple's chances of having the reverse sex of the one they want. I written report found that couples who followed his communication had merely a 39 percent hazard of conceiving the gender of their pick. That's less than the 50-per centum chance they'd have if they let nature take its form.

"What Dr. Shettles proposed seems to brand sense," says Masood Khatamee, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City. "Simply when put to the test, his methods oasis't held upward."

boy girl twins in knit hats

J. Martin Young, Yard.D., a private-practice 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 stalk from its being based on artificial insemination. For couples conceiving naturally, Dr. Young prescribes the opposite course. "My method is based on the fact that at least five studies, some of which tested Dr. Shettles's theory, have establish that girls are usually conceived correct at ovulation and that boys are conceived four to half-dozen days before and two days after ovulation," says Dr. Young.

His recommendations? Have sex inside 24 hours of ovulation to increase your chances of conceiving a girl to about 55 to 60 percent; to increase your odds of conceiving a male child to about 60 to 65 pct, have sex activity four to vi days preceding ovulation and then abjure. The woman should remain however for twenty minutes later on intercourse to increase the survival of all sperm and the chance of fertilization. In addition, use a blistering soda douche.

Among his satisfied customers are Julie and Wolf Puckett. V years ago, the Amarillo, Texas, couple consulted Dr. Young's book for help in conceiving a male child. The Pucketts charted Julie'due south temperature to determine ovulation, then had intercourse several days before she was set to ovulate. Afterwards, Julie raised her hips with a pillow, as Dr. Immature advises. Whether past design or by chance, the system worked. The Pucketts' son, Hunter, is at present iv.

The Ultimate Chance

If these conflicting theories sound confusing, they are. Furthermore, there'south no proof that they work any amend than the wooden-spoon method. 1 of the few reputable studies on the bailiwick, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found no correlation between gender and the timing of intercourse. "These theories simply don't stand up upward to scientific scrutiny," says Joshua A. Copel, M.D., a professor at Yale University School of Medicine.

Exercise-it-yourself methods are all-time regarded equally harmless fun: fine to try, as long equally would-be parents are open to a child of either sex. (Those who aren't might well question the wisdom of becoming parents at all.) "In conception, gender is always a gamble," Dr. Copel observes, "and you have to exist willing to take whatever yous get."

Yet in that location are circumstances—a gender-linked affliction, for instance—when sexual practice preselection makes medical sense, in which case parents may desire to seek high-tech interventions.

Selective Services

For couples with a family unit history of certain diseases, gender selection 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 boy.

One method, called MicroSort, separates the X and Y sperm, then uses the desired kind to fertilize the egg either in vitro or through artificial insemination. The Genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax, Virginia, where it was developed, says the method boasts a 91 percent success rate with girls and a 74 pct charge per unit with boys. Nevertheless, after the FDA banned the employ of sperm-sorting for sexual practice selection in 2011, MicroSort is no longer available in the U.Due south. Instead, its labs are located in United mexican states, Malaysia, North Cyprus, and Switzerland. The company offers its services to married couples interested in family unit balancing and to families with genetic diseases; fees start at upward of $3,000.

This story is a composite of articles reprinted with permission from the Spring 2001 issue of Expecting magazine and the April 2003 consequence of Parentsmag. It was updated in 2018.

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Source: https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/my-baby/gender-prediction/choose-baby-gender/