Why is there a need to find out the gender of the child? From a medical point of view: this is extremely important to exclude or confirm fears that the baby will inherit a genetic disease that is transmitted only through the female or male line. Receiving confirmation allows risk mitigation measures to be taken as early as possible, if possible.
There are many proven, unproven, and scientifically proven methods of studying data to accurately predict the sex of a child.
What methods are there:
- folk signs;
- Chinese calendar;
- calculation for updating the blood of parents;
- according to the Rh factor of the couple's blood;
- by blood group;
- medical (scientifically based).
A little physiology
Each cell of the human body has 23 pairs of chromosomes - 22 pairs of autosomes (non-sex) and 1 pair of sex chromosomes. Each pair of autosomes is identical in a man and a woman. Only the sex chromosomes differ: a woman has two X chromosomes, a man has one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. In any woman, all eggs contain one X chromosome (there are simply no other sex chromosomes in the female body). There are two types of sperm in men: those with an X chromosome and those with a Y chromosome. If the egg is fertilized by an X sperm, a girl will be born, if Y, a boy will be born. Thus, the sex of the unborn baby depends only on the man! A woman can only “contribute” in the form of an X chromosome, and the responsibility for the second necessary part lies with the dad.
How can you determine the gender of your unborn child using a DNA test?
Long-term studies of the human genome have made it possible to determine that DNA cells of the unborn child appear in a woman’s blood already in the first month of pregnancy. However, the level of fetal DNA sufficient to obtain reliable data appears from 7-8 weeks. At 2 months, the test efficiency reaches 99.9999%.
The essence of the procedure is to determine the Y chromosome, which is unique to men. In the absence of the required markers, parents can wait for the birth of a girl. The reliability of the analysis results depends on:
- Accuracy of determining the time of conception;
- Number of previous pregnancies;
- Individual characteristics of the mother’s body;
- Deviations in fetal development.
Until recently, genetic testing to determine sex using maternal blood was carried out in test mode. Today, geneticists have managed to identify the causes of errors and eliminate them, which has reduced the error to 0.0001%.
I believe - I don't believe
Whether to believe omens is a personal matter for each couple. Of course, most signs regarding the gender of the unborn baby are based on superstitions and prejudices. And some are based on nothing at all. Judge for yourself.
According to Chinese superstition, in order to have a boy, a woman needs to lie with her head to the north during intercourse, and to conceive a girl, she needs to lie with her head to the south. Among the Germanic peoples there is a superstition that if conception is “timed” in the rain, a girl will be born, and if it is in sunny weather, a boy will be born.
An interesting sign of the ancient Slavs (it can easily cause discord in the relationship between spouses): if a woman loves a man more than he loves her, a girl will be born, and if on the contrary, then a boy.
There is also such a sign: if conception occurs in the fall, then boys are born more often, and if in the spring, girls are born. This method is based on the “vitaminization” of the mother’s body - they say, in the fall there are a lot of vitamins in the body, and the boys “get started” in more comfortable conditions! And girls agree to be born in conditions of spring hypovitaminosis. However, according to science, the saturation of the female body with vitamins in no way affects the likelihood of fertilization with X- or Y-sperm. Of course, vitamins are necessary for the normal functioning of the body, especially when planning pregnancy. But so far, not a single vitamin has managed to take on the role of “determiner” of the sex of the unborn child.
Temperature technique
This floor planning technique is very common because it is quite simple to apply. Its essence lies in the fact that Y-sperm quickly die under the influence of high temperature, while carriers of the X chromosome are more resistant to the effects of heat and cold. Dads who want to have an heir should not overheat! They will have to forget about tight jeans, tight underwear, saunas, steam baths, and long periods of driving. Working in blast furnaces - no, taking a cold shower - yes!
There is some truth in this, but these precautions relate more to the possibility of having children in principle, and not specifically to a boy or girl. The fact is that under the influence of high temperature, the sperm protein denatures and all sperm lose their activity. Y-carriers die a little earlier, X-carriers die a little later, and it is impossible to calculate the period when the majority of one or the other will remain “alive.”
We use calculation tables
Future parents are worried about a lot: who will their baby be more like, when exactly will he be born and what will his character be like? But they are especially interested in whether it will be a boy or a girl.
Is it possible to predict the gender of the baby before birth?
Today it is possible to determine the gender of an unborn child even before birth. However, you can get a reliable result with a routine ultrasound only from the 21st week of pregnancy (before the baby simply “will not show” your gender).
Dinner is served!
The method of planning the sex of a child using a special diet is a special topic. What kind of diets are not offered to expectant parents - electrolyte, French, Slavic, and Japanese...
The goal of all these diets is the same - to saturate the mother’s body with certain electrolytes (these are important biological substances involved in almost all spheres of the body’s life). All of them are equally necessary for the body, however, sperm have their own “preferences” in the saturation of specific elements. X chromosome carriers survive better in an environment saturated with calcium and magnesium, and Y chromosome carriers with sodium and potassium. And these substances are found in certain foods.
This is what the girl’s “grocery set” looks like: eggs, fresh fish, eggplants, beets, carrots, cucumbers, peas, capsicums, onions, green salad, unsalted nuts, dairy products, herbs, honey, jam. Drinks include coffee, cocoa, hot chocolate.
The boys “got” meat, bread, rice, potatoes, mushrooms, lentils, cherries, bananas, apricots, oranges, peaches, dates, dried fruits and traditionally male drinks - beer, wine, fruit juices.
This fairly common method of sex planning deservedly causes a particularly wary attitude among doctors, since, unlike other methods (calculating the date of ovulation, frequency of sexual intercourse, choosing certain positions, etc.), diet directly affects the condition of the mother’s body. An unbalanced diet (and any diet, in fact, is exactly that) threatens the exacerbation of chronic diseases, decreased immunity, hypovitaminosis, and at the same time does not at all contribute to the birth of a child of the desired sex.
"Call of blood"
One of the most popular methods for determining the sex of an unborn child is counting the “renewal” of blood. According to this technique, the state of the blood changes in a certain cyclical mode: at the beginning of the cycle, the blood is “fresher and stronger.” This determines the gender of the unborn child - whose blood is “younger”, that parent determines the gender of the unborn child.
The method, simple in its essence, is based on numerological theory. The technique of numerical patterns has reached us since ancient times; According to this theory, it is believed that all living organisms develop cyclically. At certain intervals, a programmed restructuring of the body occurs, including “renewal” of the blood. For women this interval is three years, for men - four.
The calculation is simple: the age of future parents is divided, respectively, by three for women and by four for men. Whose remainder is greater will be the floor. And an amendment: if the mother is a carrier of a negative Rh factor, then the result will be exactly the opposite.
Of course, there are no laboratory tests that can detect and evaluate the “freshness” of blood. There is also no scientifically proven pattern for the birth of children of a certain gender using this method. However, it is impossible not to note the objective value of this method - it is completely harmless to the body!
The essence of the method
There is an assumption that the group affiliation of the heme and Rh factors of the parents affects not only the health of the child, but also his gender. Scientists at different times tried to find the relationship; a probability table was experimentally developed by which the sex of the child can be determined. Its rows indicate the values for women, and the columns for men; at their intersection is the answer to the exciting question.
The sex of the fetus based on its blood type is determined in utero. After conception, the fetus develops an individual set of genes, which depends on the blood type of the parents.
"Sprinters" and "marathon runners"
However, no matter how skeptical we may be, there are a number of observations that are statistically confirmed. These include calculating the timing of sexual intercourse relative to ovulation. Ovulation is the release of a mature egg from the ovary as a result of rupture of the follicle - the vesicle in which the egg was located. Then the egg enters the lumen of the fallopian tube, where the process of fertilization occurs - its fusion with the sperm.
Spermatozoa differ in their properties. Sperm carrying the male Y chromosome are more mobile than those carrying the X chromosome, and therefore are able to reach the egg first. So Y sperm would seem to have an advantage. But, once in the acidic environment of the vagina, Y-sperm become unstable and quickly die, opening the way for their slower X-counterparts. It turns out that sperm with an X chromosome are more viable due to the structural features of the membrane and can “sit” in the fallopian tube waiting for ovulation for up to 3 days. Spermatozoa with a Y chromosome are incapable of waiting at all.
However, the closer the day of ovulation, the more alkaline the vaginal secretions become, and the likelihood of Y sperm surviving is higher. Based on this, theories arose that claim that during sexual intercourse that occurs 1-3 days before ovulation, less durable Y-sperm die and the egg is more likely to be fertilized by an X-sperm, that is, a girl will be born.
And if sexual intercourse immediately precedes ovulation or occurs immediately after it, then, most likely, a boy will be born, since the more mobile and faster Y-sperm will quickly “reach” the released egg.
The condition for this calculation is the exact determination of the date of ovulation. There are several ways to do this: simple tests to determine ovulation, examination of cervical mucus, measurement of basal temperature, and the most reliable - folliculometry.
The method of measuring basal temperature is the most accessible, simple and quite reliable. The principle of its operation is to construct a temperature curve. To do this, you need to measure your rectal temperature every morning, without getting out of bed, and mark it, drawing a kind of graph. You should start from the first day of the cycle, which corresponds to the first day of menstruation. Approximately in the middle of the cycle, the even temperature line suddenly drops sharply - this is the day of ovulation. The next day, the line goes up just as sharply - this corresponds to the beginning of the second (luteal) phase of the menstrual cycle.
The method of studying cervical mucus is based on the fact that on the day of ovulation, the mucus is maximally saturated with estrogen and becomes abundant, stretchable, and viscous. When the mucus dries on glass, it crystallizes, and under a microscope you can see bizarre patterns - the “fern symptom”. Similar changes occur with saliva. At the pharmacy you can buy a small device to determine the approximate date of ovulation, onto which you can apply saliva and observe the appearance of the “fern”. It should be borne in mind that the fern effect appears not only on the day of ovulation, but also in the days closest to this date.
However, in modern life, the most common way to determine the day of ovulation is folliculometry - monitoring the maturation of the follicle using ultrasound. In this case, the process of follicle maturation is monitored by day, and the reliability of ovulation is confirmed by the presence of the corpus luteum - a formation that appears at the site of the burst follicle.
The result is guaranteed!
So are there really no reliable ways to give birth to a girl or a boy? Eat. Science does not stand still, and in medicine, high technologies are periodically introduced into general clinical practice. One such breakthrough discovery is fetal preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). This technique began to be used in 1990. Now it is carried out as part of the IVF program - in vitro fertilization. This is a method of assisted reproductive technology in which conception occurs outside the mother's body. The egg is fertilized by a sperm “in vitro”, i.e. in the laboratory, and then transferred to the uterus.
PGD allows you to determine the sex and conduct genetic testing of the embryo before it is transferred into the uterine cavity and, accordingly, even before pregnancy occurs. Couples who have a high risk of transmitting a hereditary disease become “candidates” for this study.
But, despite the fact that this technique is widely used, today it does not meet the requirements of couples ordering a specific gender of the child, since it is used only to prevent the birth of children with gender-linked diseases. This extremely complex and expensive procedure is intended for genetic control of the fetus, and sex determination is only a “side effect” of this manipulation. Even the latest high reproductive technologies do not provide a 100% guarantee of results, and sometimes this procedure can cause complications. Therefore, preimplantation diagnostics of the embryo is carried out only if necessary and is not intended to satisfy idle curiosity or whims.
Perhaps the gender of the unborn child is one of the most common topics discussed during pregnancy.
From ancient times to the present day, couples have been actively looking for a way to “order the stork.” The desire to have a child of a certain gender is quite natural, unless it acquires obsessive traits and develops into a negative attitude towards a child of the “undesired” gender. To date, there is not a single reliable scientifically proven method of conceiving a fetus of a certain gender. And is it necessary? After all, the consequences could be catastrophic for all humanity. The question of the sex of the future baby is very complex - and at the same time simple. As it should be, so it will be. The birth of a child, the coming of a new person into the world is a True Miracle, and we must treat it with respect and awe. You just need to direct your efforts to planning your pregnancy with the goal of giving birth to a healthy and happy child. Boy or girl – does it really matter? Tags: cir in the media
Is it possible to find out what gender a child is without an ultrasound?
In an attempt to understand the nature of the origin of life and the mechanisms of reproduction, people have learned to determine the sex of a child, relying on “folk” signs and signals given by the body of a pregnant mother:
- If a woman has “bloomed”, eats a lot of meat and fish, and her stomach becomes “sharp” and goes down to the bottom - most likely she is expecting a boy;
- Deterioration of the skin condition, craving for sweets, rounding and raising of the tummy are signs of the imminent appearance of a girl.
There is another funny “old-fashioned” method: a wedding ring tied to a thread is held over the stomach. If it starts to sway from side to side - wait for a boy, describes circles - a girl.
The ancient Eastern method is based on the age of the mother and the time of conception. This method has been known for over 700 years and is used by couples from China to this day (although not recognized by doctors). You can also find out who will be born by the Rh factor of the parents’ blood: in the absence of the antigen in the father and mother, in 9 out of 10 cases girls are born, while if there is a “+” match, boys are most likely born.
But in recent years, most people are opting for non-invasive prenatal tests. In most cases, the study is prescribed in addition to biochemical and ultrasound screening to increase the accuracy of determining the sex of the fetus. Moreover, in practice there are cases when the results of DNA diagnostics turned out to be more accurate than ultrasound.
Genetic testing allows you to determine the sex of the baby from 4-5 weeks of pregnancy and can boast of high (>99.999999%) accuracy. And contrary to popular belief, such studies are absolutely safe, painless and do not harm either the woman or the fetus, because the mother’s blood is used as a sample for non-invasive prenatal tests.
