Is there any way to seperate the male sperm from the female sperm and is this practice currently being done? I know female sperm are alot heavier so I’m sure there must be an easy way. It just seems that in today’s day and age we should be able to choose the sex of our kids.
I recall that you can use a centrifuge and artificial insemination to increase the probability. The sperm with Xs in are heavier and end up at the bottom of the test tube. Take a look at this BBC article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2337597.stm
It’s not perfect
I’ve heard that spinning the sperm in a centrifuse is a way to get male sperm (from top skimming).
This method wasn’t ‘avisable’ for extracting female sperm when I heard this.
I don’t remember where I heard this from (TV, Radio, even a school teacher, really no F$#%en idea) But I remember a person not ‘in the know’ that the reason for not using the female sperm might be to avoid the chance of extra chromosome children.
Ok, I always heard that one sex of sperm swim slower but live longer, and the other swims quickly but dies quickly, so depending on the position and depth of penetration, you could try and improve your odds one way or the other.
UL?
It would be easy to artifically inseminate all the same sex sperm, thus guaranteeing the sex of the child. Wouldn’t it?
The problem is sepperating them, don’t you realize that there are tens of thousands of them, and you have to spread each ones legs open and look under a microscope to tell which ones are boy sperm and which ones are girl sperm.
I also heard that boy sperm swim faster and die quicker then girl sperm so if you get going early before your ovulation you should be more liekly to have a girl, if you get busy closer to ovulation then more liekly a boy sperm will get to the egg 1st.
Can the sex of an unborn baby be definitely determined? I seem to think it can, via amniocentesis, but I’m just not in the mood to become an instant Internet expert tonight.
Most of the people I know personally who’ve been advised of their soon-to-be-kid’s sex were told after a sonogram, which, IIRC, can produce false positive male interpretations if the umbilical cord is in the right (or wrong) place.
If you want a boy, have sex with my cousin Joe. He has six boys.
I sell a very highly recommended gender choosing program for only 30 bucks. It is a book that describes a program that you can do with your partner to chose a gender over the other.
And it even has a 50/50 chance of working!
Centrifugation of sperm isn’t an option any more, as it worked about 50% of the time. (I’m saying that tounge-in-cheek, but it is not that far off.) Most clinics do not offer it any longer.
The only absolute way is through genetic testing (PGD - preimplantation genetic diagnosis). You can fertilize eggs in vitro, wait until they are at the 4-cell stage, knock a cell off, do PGD and determine its sex, then transfer the embryo into the mother.
No, you can’t do it (legally, in the US) for sex-choosing purposes. Possible, just not allowed.
more info on PGD
there is a avery reliable practice in rural china. It is called drowning your baby if it is a girl.
If the pregnant lady gorges herself with sugar, spice, and everything nice during the first trimester, it is likely that she will produce a girlchild.
If she wants a boy, she should eat…well, that’s too gross to think about.
[Hearsay and TMI warning] Here is what I read a long time ago, in a book by a doctor (but I don’t remember the title or author): Male sperm are sprinters, and female sperm are marathoners (if it’s a word). So, if you want to increase your chances of having a boy, make sure the potential mother is very well lubricated (to make the journey easier), and get the sperm in a far (i.e. close to the fallopian tube) as you can. To increase your chances of having a girl, make it a trek for the sperm (which means a lot of trying/harder to get pregnant).
If this is true, then I would think that statistics would tend to prove it. e.g. (almost) all so-called ‘virgin births’ (I understand it has happened, but probably not enough for a statistical analysis) would be girls; as well as a disproportionate number of unintentional births.
Anyone got anything to support or disprove this?
A blonde, a bruntte and a redhead are in the OB/GYN waiting room.
“I was on top,” said the brunette, “so I’m having a boy.”
“I was on bottom,” said the redhead, “so I’m having a girl.”
The blonde begins to weep, “Oh no, I’m having puppies.”
an oldie but a goodie
15 years ago, when we were having our kids, the technique at the time was to place a sperm sample downstream of a couple semipermeable barriers. As stated above, the stronger swimmers (that would make male babies) would penetrate the barriers in greater numbers in the time allowed. It was about 60-80% successful in selecting for males. It wasn’t recommended to try to select the other direction, because in addition to the perfectly healthy sperm that would make female babies, there would be a lot of imperfect sperm that couldn’t get through the barrier, and there’d be a greater instance of birth defects.
[url=“http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9809/09/baby.sex.02/”]This[/ur] 4.5 year old article says that the “micro-sort” procedure is 93% accurate…
Let’s try that link again: This article.
Preview is your friend…