Hey to all,
Here’s the question: Are there any ways to increase the chances of having a boy or a girl? I’m not looking for home-cooked pseudo-truth or old wives’ tales. I’m wondering if there is any scientifically proven way to increase the chances one way or the other.
The reason I’m asking is that my father insists that I can increase my odds of having a boy if I wear tighy underwear instead of boxers, claiming that the increased heat will kill of more of the X sperm than Y sperm. I think he’s more full of crap than a touirst with Montezuma’s Revenge and a cork up his keister.
Any answers or direction to sources for this information would be appreaciated.
Thanks,
Wade
The most recent Discover magazine has an article about it. Don’t remember what the conclusion was off the top of my head (I think it had something to do with the robustness of the couple and the frequency of attempts), but it is possible without putting your panties in a twist. 
I read the same discover article. June 2005, “The biology of … sex ratios” by Mary Duenwald.
Basically she says that high glucose levels tend to lead to male offspring (by a small margin) and also that couples who have sex within a few days of ovulation are more likely to have boys. High-fat diets raise glucose levels, so put your wife on a high-fat diet and have sex while she’s ovulating and you raise your chances of having a boy by as much as 3 percent.
One theory forwarded in the article originally promoted by Robert Trivers and Dan Willard in 1973 is as follows: “If a pregnant woman is strong and likely to bear a healthy child, she’s better off having a boy: healthy males tend to have many more offspring than weaker males… Even the least robust females tend to have some offspring, whereas the weakest males may never mate.”