Sex Selection

Sex Selection Nowadays, couples may want to select the sex of their child before pregnancy for different reasons.

-Some diseases are transmitted through sex-linked genes. So it is possible that a couple choose sex selection to prevent the transmission of a sex-linked pathogen to their children.

-The couple may just want to have a balanced family.

That is, if their first child was a boy, they are now looking to have a daughter, or vice versa.

-Sometimes these reasons have deep cultural, social, or historical roots that are not discussed in this article.

Whatever the motivation for pre-pregnancy sex selection is , it is now possible to achieve it with the help of assisted reproductive techniques. Methods of pre-pregnancy sex selection can be divided into two categories:

-The scientific and guaranteed method in which the gender is determined one hundred percent in accordance with the wishes of the parents.

In this method, the relevant specialists use in vitro fertilization (IVF) method.

After the embryos reached to the 8-cell stage,the embryologist takes one or two cells from the dividing cells and use PGD techniques (PGD: Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis) to determine the embryos sex.

Embryos of the desired sex are isolated and transferred into the uterus after preparation. The remaining embryos are frozen and stored for the next time.

Determining sex by this method requires genetic testing and a higher cost than IVF without sex selection.

-The non-scientific method:

It is possible to use unscientific methods at a much lower cost, but there is no guarantee of determining the sex of the child.

They can only increases the chances of one sex occurring.

These methods include a combination of the following factors:

-Couples’ nutrition and diet.

-Timing and setting the time of ovulation and the time of sexual intercourse

-The position of the body during the sexual intercourse and penetration of more sperms into the body

-Body temperature

-The acidity or alkalinity of the vagina during sexual intercourse