Techniques for Conceiving Baby Girls

Couples who already have a son or who are simply hoping for a daughter may be interested in techniques for conceiving baby girls.

Some techniques may help you conceive a girl.

Your unborn child's gender is determined as soon as you conceive. Each egg already has an X chromosome. The sperm carries either another X or a Y chromosome. When the second X joins the egg, you will have a girl. If a Y makes its way to the egg first, you'll have a boy. Simply put, XX=girl, XY=boy.

Differences do exist in the speed and longevity of the different sperm. Male sperm, carrying the Y, travels faster than the X. But, this speed doesn't help the males have a longer shelf life. In fact, sperm with the X chromosomes are viable longer than their male counterparts.

What can you do to ensure that an X from the father meets up with the X in your egg? Unfortunately, there aren't any definite ways to guarantee that you'll have a girl. There are some popular legends and scientific-based techniques for conceiving baby girls, but they will only increase your chances.

Influencing your baby's gender can only go so far, but there are some popular beliefs about how to make it happen:

• The Shettles method was developed by a gynecologist and fertility researcher in the 1960s. This technique relies on timing intercourse in advance of ovulation. Followers of this method say that having sex prior to the expected ovulation gives time for the male sperm to basically die off, leaving mostly female sperm ready to combine with the egg when it comes out. One of the problems with this method is that it's sometime hard to know when a woman is ovulating. It's even harder to predict when a woman is two days ahead of her ovulation. Experts line up on both sides of the argument, with some saying that following the Shettles Method will produce a girl about 75 percent of the time. Other experts, however, say there is no evidence that timing intercourse for before ovulation will have any effect on the gender.

• The Whelan method contradicts Dr. Shettles advice. Whelan instead recommends timing intercourse for close to ovulation to conceive a girl and says that having sex several days in advance of ovulation will produce a boy.

• The Chinese Lunar Pregnancy Calendar is an ancient document that contains a chart listing which gender a woman will conceive in a given month. It's based on the lunar calendar, which generally gives women a higher age than the eastern calendar. For example, a woman who is 34 might be 36 on the lunar chart. Determining when exactly a woman will conceive can be difficult, however, since conception can happen anytime over several days. If ovulation happens around the beginning or end of the month, it's possible to conceive during a different month that is expected.

Though highly controversial, women who are undergoing fertility treatments may have a greater chance of picking the gender of their baby. When sperm is prepared for intrauterine insemination, it is spun in a centrifuge. Depending on which direction it is spun in, the X chromosome sperm rises to the top of the test tube. If a girl is preferred, the fertility specialist can then use that sperm for the procedure.

During in vitro fertilization, the gender of each embryo can be determined in advance of having them implanted in the uterus. Since the embryo's DNA is analyzed, this method has the highest chances of producing a girl. It is about 99 percent effective, but can cost several thousand dollars on top of the other costs of IVF.

The jury is still out on whether timing intercourse around ovulation or following the Chinese lunar calendar will really increase your chances of having a girl. At best, most women have a 50 percent chance of conceiving the gender that they want. Although some women swear by the techniques for conceiving baby girls listed here, women need to decide if it's more important to have a baby of either gender rather than planning on just a girl. If a woman has an irregular cycle or any difficulty conceiving, she could potentially miss her own fertile times by trying to schedule intercourse specifically for a girl.

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