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).