Influence the Gender of Your Baby

Is it possible to sway the chances of having a boy or having a girl? There are some facts that are indisputable. While researchers used to say the boy sperm (Y) swim faster, this has been proven to be untrue. The female egg is approximately 1 percent larger than the male. Their shape is very similar.

Each sperm has a full 22 chromosomes with each having the 23rd, which is the X or Y. Sperm can live inside the woman’s body for three to five days. Women produce only X eggs, while men produce X and Y sperm. Baby boys have the XY combination and girls just have the XX combination. It only takes a few minutes to fertilize the one egg as an average of 100 million sperm are available.

It is important to understand ovulation if you want to affect the chances of having a girl or boy. Every girl is born with millions of immature eggs. When an egg is released from the ovary and pushed into the fallopian tube then it is ready for fertilization. The egg only lives for 12-24 hours after leaving the ovary. Usually, only one egg is released at a time. Some women can feel slight discomfort when an egg is released.

Many women track ovulation in order to increase the likelihood of getting pregnant. There are many theories as to whether you can influence the sex of your baby by choosing when to have sex.

There is a well-known method known as the Shettles Method that states to have a boy you would time sex to occur at the peak of ovulation. The theory is based on the belief that Y sperm swims faster, which has been proven untrue. It is also based on the fact that the pH of the cervix drops, therefore, being more acidic. The theory suggests avoiding sex four to five days prior to ovulation. It further states that men should avoid jockey shorts and hot showers just prior to sex as the heat may kill the male sperm. The ovulation cycle is tracked by charting the woman’s daily temperature, which is lower before ovulation and higher after.

This is useful information if you want to conceive but is not particularly helpful as to the sex of the baby. Some also state positions make a difference, but that is also based on the notion that male sperm swims faster.

Another belief is that diet can influence whether you will conceive a boy or girl. Researchers, in a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 740, found an association between women who ate breakfast cereal and a potassium-rich diet delivered more boys.

Women who skipped breakfast and ate fewer calories had girls more often. They stressed that this information was not proof, and the diet does not sway the outcome of the sex of your baby. However, 59 percent of the women who ate cereal about the same time each day had boys according to a study done in the UK of 740 women.

Another method of attempting to influence the sex of the baby states that a woman should douche with water and vinegar to make the climate more hospitable for female babies. For a boy, the douche should be water and baking soda. This is also unproven.

Steven Ory, MD, state there is nothing you can do to influence the sex of your baby and the odds are 50-50. This certainly does not stop people from trying different methods.

M. Jericho, Ph.D. disagrees and believes that adjusting the pH of the body can make a difference. He sells his advice online and suggests that if a woman wants a girl she should avoid salt and eat a lot of protein.

I spent considerable time researching this topic and could not find a valid study that proved anything. The research did not cover in vitro fertilization treatments, which may be successful but it is difficult and expensive.

Certainly, if someone is trying to conceive a baby, tracking their ovulation time is helpful. It will also help a woman to lay flat on the bed for at least 20 minutes with her hips elevated the following sex. As for swaying your chances of choosing the sex of your baby, there are many opinions, but none proved. If you have been successful using a method of choosing the sex of your child, please share it in your comments as I am sure everyone would like to know.