Sex Selection

Throughout history, prospective parents have sought to conceive a baby of one gender or another, but now preconception gemder selection has goner hi-tech. The birth of the first test-tube baby in 1978 gave us a whole host of pre-conception gender selection possibilities. But if you have really set your heart on producing a baby of one gender or another, then forget going to bed with your partner and having natural conception.

Preconception gender selection with the highest success rates is a highly scientific business. It involves getting pregnant by either IUI (artificial inseminantion) or IVF (in vitro fertilization). These methods can be inconvenient and costly.

However, if you DO manage to become pregnant by these methods, you will have had a much higher chance than normal of choosing the gender of your baby. Preconception gender selection is a less controversial method of gender selection since it does not involve discarding the embryos of the 'wrong' sex. Gender selection takes place in terms of the of the ova and the sperm.

Let's look at some hi-tech (and therefore highly successful) methods of preconception gender selection.

MicroSort This is the only method so far which is clinically proven to enable the separation of X and Y sperm - which are what detrmine the unborn baby's gender. The chances of successful preconception gender selection rise to between seventy-five and ninety per cent - significantly higher than for other methods.

The theory of MicroSort goes that if you remove mostly Y sperm, then conception of a girl is more likely, and the opposite is true if X sperm are removed. The sample of sperm which has been sorted is then used to get pregnant, either by artificial insemination (IUI) or in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Of course, the process is not fool-proof. Some sperm from the unwanted gender can of course slip through and may then fertilize the egg, resulting in a baby not of the desired gender.

The Ericsson Albumin Method of Preconception Gender Selection This method of gender selection is based upon the belief that girl-producing sperm are stronger than the sperm that will produce boys. This is a relatively new method of gender selection only available in America.

This method of preconception gender selection works by layering separated sperm over human serum albumin; this albumin is the main protein in human blood. The sperm swim down through the albumin are collected and washed of the albumin and most of them are discarded. (They are not embryos at this stage - merely sperm.)

The theory is that the odds are with the stronger girl sperm being the ones to get through this process.

These sperm are then used to artificially inseminate the woman. MicroSort and the Ericsson Albumin Method of Preconception Gender Selection are the two most reliable methods of gender selection. As they occur pre-conception, they also avoid the ethical issues of discarding fertilized embryos simply because they aren't the desired gender.