Forget old wives tales that claim to help families choose a baby’s gender. Diet changes and the timing of sexual intercourse most likely won’t help fulfill your dreams of birthing a boy or girl. Want to accurately dictate the gender of your next child? Well, thanks to science, where there is a Will or a Wilma, there’s a way! Actually-there are a few.
In-vitro fertilization and artificial insemination give parents the option to choose whether they get pregnant with a boy or a girl. But why would someone subject herself to this involved process simply to choose the gender of her next baby?
For many, IVF and AI are necessary for conception anyway due to fertility issues. If a family needs to undergo fertility treatments to get pregnant, it might not make a big difference to add the gender identifying testing to the protocol. During the procedure, doctors test the embryos and only plant either male or female embryos at the parent’s request. Some parents feel that if they can only have one child due to the cost constraints of fertility treatments they want to choose the gender of that baby.
Other people without fertility issues decide to undergo IVF or AI for the sole purpose of selecting gender. But why? For some, genetic issues are gender-specific. If there is a risk of passing down a rare genetic condition to only one gender, parents may choose to skip the chance. With this being said, the process of IVF can be expensive. So it comes as no surprise to find that some people may decide to look into IVF Financing to find a way to be able to finance this journey. Alternatively, couples who are struggling with fertility may outsource other options to bring the reality of a newborn to life, especially if the woman has complications with her uterus, making IVF physically impossible for the mother. Surrogacy and adoption are other options that you may look into instead of IVF. Surrogacy is certainly a cheaper option compared to IVF when you have the fortunate opportunity to work with a friend through the process. Usually, a price on your friend being your surrogate can be agreed upon through a conversation. There are more details on being a surrogate for a friend on The Sensible Surrogacy Guide’s website if you’re interested.
Other parents participate in family balancing. This means they have a boy or girl child already and want to complete the family with a child of the other sex. If they feel strongly enough, some clinics will allow for this type of selection as long as parents have another child of the other gender at home.
If you’re interested in genetic selection for a non-medical reason, clinics can complete a test called preimplantation genetic screening, or PGS. If the test is done to determine chromosomal abnormalities, it is called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD. Both tests can both be used to determine the sex of embryos before they are implanted.
It’s important to understand that most clinics have rules on genetic selection. Some frown upon the procedure for any reason other than a medically necessary one, while others may screen for fertility before agreeing to IVF or AI in order to deter patients from using the services for the sole purpose of choosing gender.