When I was a student at Indiana U. (87-91), I took a class titled “Human Life Span Development” that was taught by a professor affiliated with the Kinsey Institute. The one “fact” from that class that sticks with me through all of these years is that the conception of boys is positively correlated (he claimed something like 80%) to the incidence of female orgasm (the claimed reasoning for this is the same as proposed in the threads linked below). This was not mentioned in any textbook for the class but was offered by the professor as fact to approximately 150-200 students. If this had come from almost any other source (Cecil excepted, of course) I would have dismissed it as a UL. I’ve mentioned this to several mom friends over the years though, and based on their responses my very limited sampling seems to back this up. This subject came up tonight with my long-time friend and short-time roommate (to whom I’ve been singing the praises of the SDMB for years), and she suggested that I pose the question here.
I originally intended to post this as a GQ, but I did a search and two previous GQ threads (here and here) were started on this subject without a conclusive answer, although I agree with a couple of the posters in those threads that it doesn’t seem logically plausible.
Due to the lack of a factual answer thus far, I’d like to conduct a (admittedly unscientific) poll of doper moms; therefore, the questions (for each birth) are:
Boy or girl?
Orgasm at conception?
Of course, any non-poll responses that support or refute this claim are also welcome.
I’m going with “how the hell would I know?” It IS generally a month or more between the conception and when you know it ‘took’, so to speak. Unless you’re a “I always do” or “I never do” I don’t see how anyone would ever remember?
Also, given the common effects of exhaustion and lack of sleep on the female libido, that a larger than expected number of second and subsequent children would be girls.
This is all sounding rather like the last vestiges of the mediaeval superstition that a wonam couldn’t get pregnant at all unless she enjoyed the experience.
Not necessarily, in fact I wouldn’t expect that at all - I think the idea here isn’t that orgasm makes X or Y carrying sperm more or less likely to physically fertilise the ovum, but that perhaps orgasm differentially affects the sperm’s likelihood of arriving at the ovum first.
I do, with both. My son was conceived the first time I had intercourse, and my daughter after (amidst, really) a period of (intentional) celibacy.
I had an orgasm with each.
Here’s MY problem with this theory - you don’t conceive when you have sex. Sure, you conceive as a RESULT of having sex, but the actual sperm-meets-egg conception is anywhere from 3-5 days later. I always giggle at romantic conception stories, 'cause, no, you weren’t conceived when your parents went to England and spent the night shagging under the stars outside some castle in Cornwall - you were probably conceived 4 days later as your mom was riding the elevator to work.
So, what’s the mechanism here? How does an orgasm on Friday night affect a conception on Monday morning?
There’s an proposed mechanism for orgasm increasing the chances of conception, because orgasm makes the cervix dip down and suck up sperm, but I don’t see how it could affect which sperm burrows into the egg first several days later.
Sounds to me like an old wives’ tale spread by old wives who wanted their husbands to slow down and take care of their sexual needs. What better way than to promise what “most men” want if they do - sons? Pretty smart, actually.
No clue at all. I can narrow it down to "well, it must have been this ten day period because this week was my period, and this week Brainiac4 was out of town.
But I have a daughter and tend to orgasm. Not ALWAYS, but its common enough that I remember the exceptions (at least I remember them for enough time that they’d still be remembered when I was trying to figure out when I concieved). We have a girl and I’m almost positive she was not conceived under an exception.
My understanding is that boy sperm swim faster, but are less hardy and girl sperm are hardier but slower (or maybe its the other way around). The egg is only good for about three days and it takes some amount of time for the little guys to swim up at meet it. So if you want one gender you go for “sperm waiting when egg is released” and the other “rush to reach the egg while it can still be fertilized.” Orgasm is supposed to always help because it spasms the vagina and gets the little guys a head start.
I’m pretty sure I know with my son, but we were actively trying at the time so I was aware of when I ovulated, and common sense dictates that it was a couple of days before.
As far as the OP, I have a boy and did orgasm. But I don’t necessarily know that there’s a correlation.
Mom is 100% sure in my case (it was the only act of intercourse in a 6-weeks period); in the case of my brothers it’s more like “gee, I guess it was 9 months before the birth”
According to Robin Baker’s Sperm Wars, female orgasm is a factor in whether conception takes place (more likely if simultaneous with or following ejaculation; less likely if preceding ejaculation), but he doesn’t mention it as a factor in sex selection.
OK, I did. You were likely conceived around January 14. On this day the Pongal (or harvest festival) is celebrated in South India, New Year’s Day is celebrated if your parents happen to be Eastern Orthodox and still follow the Julian calendar, and it is the day of the Feast of the Ass (Festum Asinorum), an ancient medieval festival in which a girl would be led around town on a donkey while the church congregation hee-hawed at her.
