Is scheduling a baby's gender by ovulation wise?

The question of conceiving a child of a certain sex has always interested women. Someone wants a boy, an heir, someone dreams of a daughter. And in search of the truth and effective ways to predict gender even before conception, women are faced with a lot of advice, including planning sex for ovulation. It is noteworthy that such advice is given not only by women's sites and forums on the Internet, but sometimes by manufacturers of ovulation tests, which indicate not only the phase of the cycle, but also the probability of conceiving a baby of one sex or another. Our article will help you deal with this.

Only facts and nothing more

Ovulation is the period when the egg is released from the follicle on the surface of the ovary. This event usually occurs in the middle of the menstrual cycle. In the first half of the cycle, the oocyte matures and the follicle grows. Then hormonal changes occur, in which the follicle membranes become thin and ruptured, releasing the female reproductive cell. Such a cell lives for about a day, it is during this time that it must be fertilized with a sperm, or it will die and have to wait for a new cycle and the next ovulation.

The viability of spermatozoa is much higher, they can, without prejudice to their ability to fertilize, exist in the genital tract of a woman for up to 3-4 days, and therefore after the release of the oocyte there are two possible scenarios:

or sperm are already waiting for her in the genital tract, if sexual contact occurred 3-4 days before ovulation;
or the sperm will arrive within 24 hours after the oocyte leaves and find the egg alive.

The gender of the child does not in any way depend on the woman and her egg. And you can endlessly prepare for conception, eat certain foods, guess the day of conception, but the gender will be the same as the sperm will determine. That is, the sex of the child is determined by the genetic makeup of the male reproductive cell.

A female cell (oocyte) always has a set of XX in its genotype - two female chromosomes. But sperm are of two types - some carry genetic information in the head with a set of sex pairs XX, and others - XY... If the oocyte membrane pierces and penetrates into the first reproductive cell with a set of XX, a girl is born, and no other options. If the egg is fertilized with an XY sperm, a boy is born. Thus, the sex of the child is determined already at the moment of fusion of the germ cells of his parents.

What do floor planning methods offer?

In an attempt to learn how to plan the sex of a child before conception, a method was created that can only be called scientific at a stretch. He takes into account the above facts about ovulation and sperm types, and this is where his "scientific" ends. Then there are continuous unfounded statements.

The method of scheduling sex by ovulation seems to women quite convincing, because it contains real medical terms that command respect, but let's look at it from the point of view of common sense.

To get pregnant with a girl, the method advises to have sexual intercourse without contraception exclusively before ovulation and to refuse sex during the period of immediate release of the egg and after that moment. This is explained by the fact that spermatozoa with a genetic set of XX are slower, less motile and fast, but more tenacious, and they will definitely wait in the wings when the female reproductive cell leaves the follicle.

But sperm with the XY genetic set are faster, nimble and mobile, but do not differ in the ability to longevity, and therefore they have a better chance of being the first to get to the oocyte.

In order to become pregnant with a boy, accordingly, it is proposed to have sexual contact directly on the day of ovulation, as well as days later, while the egg is alive... Thus, it is believed that following this principle will allow planning the birth of a child of a certain gender, which parents dream about.

Does it actually work?

For some time, reproductive scientists around the world have really seriously considered this possibility, but only as a hypothesis. With the development of reproductive assistive technologies, which make it possible to more specifically study the characteristics of the sex cells of men, it has become quite obvious that there are no differences between spermatozoa with a different set in a pair of sex chromosomes.

In other words, XX sperm and XY cells:

have the same speed of movement;
have the same morphological characteristics;
have the same lifespan.

This literally means that both cells can wait in the genital tract for an oocyte, if sexual intercourse was performed before ovulation. Also, both types of male cells have equal chances in the case of sexual intercourse on the day of ovulation and days later.

In this way, the technique has an efficiency equal to 50/50, that is, with the same success, you can not plan anything, in any case it will be either a boy or a girl.

The only accurate method for predicting the birth of a child of a certain gender is IVF with preimplantation genetic examination... This means that sperm and eggs will not be fertilized in bed, but in the laboratory, in a Petri dish, by a specialist embryologist. And on days 2-3, the geneticist will be able to determine which embryos are female and which are male, after which the embryos of the desired sex are transferred by the reproductologist into the uterine cavity.

All over the world, sex discrimination of embryos is strictly prohibited. Such selection is allowed only if the future parents have a high risk of having a child with genetic chromosomal abnormalities associated with the sex chromosome. An example is hemophilia. The carrier can be a woman, and only men can get sick. Therefore, for a couple in which, according to geneticists, the risk of having a child with such a diagnosis is high, it is important that it is not a boy, but a girl.

Does the side of the ovary position affect?

Another pseudo-scientific method recommends that women be guided by which side ovulation occurs - the right or left ovary is ovulating. It is assumed that gender depends on which ovary the egg was in. It is believed that ovulation from the follicle on the right ovary guarantees the birth of a male child, and ovulation on the left guarantees a girl. It's amazing that some women are told about this by their attending physicians, who claim that the veracity of the method is over 85%... Let's figure it out.

Ovulation occurs in either the right or left ovary. At the beginning of the cycle, follicles begin to grow on both, if the woman is healthy. But one remains dominant, rarely two. On which ovary there will be a dominant follicle, only a doctor can find out by conducting folliculometry - an ultrasound of the ovaries. If two dominant follicles mature, there is a high probability of the onset of multiple pregnancies, while the follicles may well be located on one gonad or on different ones.

There is no clear cycle or change of sides - in one month the egg leaves the left gland, in the next - from the right. Several ovulations in a row can occur from one ovary, and this is also a normal state of affairs.

Regardless of whether the egg came out on the right or left side, it carries the same genetic set - XX. And the rest, as described above, depends exclusively on the male reproductive cell, and not at all on the side of the ovulating follicle.

Thus, it is also possible to conceive a specific boy or girl using this technique with a 50/50 probability, not about any 85% of the question. AND doctors who advise their patients to such pseudo-scientific nonsense should be avoided, it is possible that they have an equally creative approach with a great deal of imagination to the management of pregnancy, and this is definitely not necessary for a sane woman.

Reviews

Reviews of women on thematic forums on the Internet are numerous, there are votes, which simplifies the task of deriving certain statistics. Both methods described and considered by us show rather dubious effectiveness. There are almost as many of those who succeeded in conceiving a baby of the desired gender following such recommendations as there are those who have obtained the exact opposite result.

If you really want to try, no one forbids. Both methods do not harm women's reproductive health., do not reduce fertility, cannot affect the condition and health of the fetus, and therefore have a right to exist. But only as entertainment, because they have nothing to do with medicine with its obligatory evidence-based approach.