Baby Gender Selection
The Quick Guide to Baby Gender Selection
Baby gender selection has become a much more common and accepted practice in the past decade. As its popularity has grown, so has the number of methods for achieving the desired gender. First, let's discuss the reasons for gender selection, then take a look at some of the more common methods, how they work, and which are thought to be the most effective.
Why Choose Your Baby's Gender?
Parents have diverse reasons for wanting to choose the gender of their baby. It may be because they already have a boy and want a girl, or vice versa. It may be that they have multiple children of the same gender already.
Baby Gender Selection Techniques
As already mentioned, there are multiple techniques for slanting the gender of your future child one way or the other. Not all methods are equally effective, and while some of the methods can give close to 100% control of the baby's gender, the costs between these methods also vary a great deal.
PGD – this stands for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. This method gives the greatest level of control over the gender of the baby – there's no chance of getting the 'wrong' gender with this method. However, it's a method based on in vitro fertilization and it's very expensive, so it may not appeal to parents looking to conceive in a more natural way.
The Microsort Process – this method is based on sorting sperm based in the genetic material they carry (since it's the sperm which determines the gender of the baby). It's less successful than PGD, having roughly a 90% success rate for people trying to conceive a girl and around 80% for boys. Statistics show it's more successful when carried out through in vitro fertilization as opposed to the alternative, intrauterine insemination.
Shettles Method – this is a method of gender selection which does not involve in vitro or intrauterine insemination – conception is achieved 'the old fashioned way.' The method is based on timing intercourse relative to ovulation, because of the fact that sperm survive for different time periods depending on the genetic material they carry related to gender. In short, sperm that code for boys die faster than sperm that code for girls. Because there is an element of guesswork involved with this method, it's relatively 'hit and miss.'
This is just a glance at the methods you can use for gender selection. There are a wide variety of other natural and scientific methods which include special diets, astrology charts, and the Ericsson Method (which is similar to Microsort, but cheaper).
Baby gender selection has become a much more common and accepted practice in the past decade. As its popularity has grown, so has the number of methods for achieving the desired gender. First, let's discuss the reasons for gender selection, then take a look at some of the more common methods, how they work, and which are thought to be the most effective.
Why Choose Your Baby's Gender?
Parents have diverse reasons for wanting to choose the gender of their baby. It may be because they already have a boy and want a girl, or vice versa. It may be that they have multiple children of the same gender already.
Baby Gender Selection Techniques
As already mentioned, there are multiple techniques for slanting the gender of your future child one way or the other. Not all methods are equally effective, and while some of the methods can give close to 100% control of the baby's gender, the costs between these methods also vary a great deal.
PGD – this stands for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. This method gives the greatest level of control over the gender of the baby – there's no chance of getting the 'wrong' gender with this method. However, it's a method based on in vitro fertilization and it's very expensive, so it may not appeal to parents looking to conceive in a more natural way.
The Microsort Process – this method is based on sorting sperm based in the genetic material they carry (since it's the sperm which determines the gender of the baby). It's less successful than PGD, having roughly a 90% success rate for people trying to conceive a girl and around 80% for boys. Statistics show it's more successful when carried out through in vitro fertilization as opposed to the alternative, intrauterine insemination.
Shettles Method – this is a method of gender selection which does not involve in vitro or intrauterine insemination – conception is achieved 'the old fashioned way.' The method is based on timing intercourse relative to ovulation, because of the fact that sperm survive for different time periods depending on the genetic material they carry related to gender. In short, sperm that code for boys die faster than sperm that code for girls. Because there is an element of guesswork involved with this method, it's relatively 'hit and miss.'
This is just a glance at the methods you can use for gender selection. There are a wide variety of other natural and scientific methods which include special diets, astrology charts, and the Ericsson Method (which is similar to Microsort, but cheaper).