Can you determine the sex of your baby? Science says there might be a way

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Societies with a strong preference for sons often place immense pressure on women who give birth only to daughters. This preference is typically rooted in cultural norms that assign greater value to sons, particularly in contexts where patrilineal inheritance, economic dependence on male children, and expectations of support in old age are prevalent.

As a result, women may be unfairly blamed or marginalised for not producing male offspring, despite having no control over a child's sex. This pressure can have serious consequences, including increased health risks, exposure to domestic violence, and social exclusion.

If you wish to influence the sex of your baby, there is hope. According to Professor Sadiq Yusuf, a fertility expert based in South Africa, sex selection through natural manipulation of the female reproductive tract can be effective when properly practised.

An embryologist at Bethany Women and Family Hospital screening and selecting the eggs after harvesting. (Photo by Agnes Kyotalengerire)

 
As such, findings of the research dubbed “Pre-conceptional Maternal Diet and Fetal Sex pre-selection” published in the International Journal of Current Research in Medical Sciences in 2016 revealed that the diet method (relative excess of sodium and potassium ions) would favour the birth of males, while relative excess of Calcium and Magnesium ions in the diet would favour the birth of female. So by altering diet to include and exclude certain foods, the condition in the reproductive tract will be directly affected, increasing the number of a particular sex.

Prof. Yusuf also highlighted the need for manipulation of the time of sexual intercourse. He explains that sperm with the Y chromosome travel faster and have a shorter life span than sperm with the X chromosome.

As such, spermatozoa may retain their fertilising capacity in the human cervical mucus for up to 48 hours and their mortality for as long as 120 hours after ejaculation.

Having sex two to three days before ovulation means that by the time of ovulation, the Y sperms will have died off, leaving only the X sperm and hence, a greater likelihood of conceiving a girl.

He notes that having sex closer to or on the day of ovulation decreases the probability of conceiving a girl and increases the probability of conceiving a boy.

The senior consultant fertility expert at Bethany Women and Family Hospital, Dr. Andabati Gonzaga, is sceptical about the natural therapies of ensuring sex selection. Dr. Andabati says there are no reliable ways of doing sex selection outside In Vitro Fertility (IVF) Treatment.

He says even after using such therapies, people with a high concentration of sperm for a particular sex, for example already have about three boys, may probably have their fourth baby as a boy.

Dr. Andabati urges couples who are serious about selection to embrace IVF and pre-implantation genetic diagnostic procedures to ensure the desired sex for their children.

A senior fertility expert at Neogenesis Fertility Centre, Dr. Mark Muyingo, agrees. According to Dr Muyingo, natural ways of determining the sex of a child through ensuring a certain sex style, eating particular foods or having sex before or after ovulation is purely theoretical and equates it to flipping a coin and you get heads or tails.