Great strides in medical reproductive science have been made over the last few decades. Indeed, it’s now possible to safely increase the odds of having either a boy or a girl, which is something that would have been unheard of just half a century ago. So, when choosing sex of baby, whether boy or girl, what should people who are contemplating such an option know about “gender selection,” as it’s called?

For starters, gender - or sex - selection attempts to predetermine the sex of a child prior to even trying to conceive. All of this work is done before the mother becomes pregnant, and there are a number of methods for doing so. Each of these methods has varying degrees of success, but odds in some cases can approach nearly 100 percent.

There are even over-the-counter, commercially-marketed kits available that help to influence the gender of the baby. These kits normally promise at least a 96 percent success rate. Their claim is that they work to make subtle changes in the body chemistry of both the mother and the father, which - in theory - helps to skew the gender selection towards the desired sex.

Clinical-medical procedures center on several different procedures. A fairly popular technique - which is called MicroSort - sorts out male sperm that differs in the characteristics of its DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) such that it’s possible to categorize those sperm which could lead to a male or a female child.

After the sperm has been sorted so that only those most likely to lead to a male or a female (by preference) are left, the next step in the process is to use either intrauterine insemination (IUI) or in vitro fertilization (IVF) to place the “enriched” sperm into the uterus of the female or to fertilize the ovum (egg) of the female. Success rate for girls approaches 92 percent and is lower, at 81 percent, for boys.

The MicroSort success rates, though, depend upon a successful pregnancy occurring in the first place. In this regard, IUI runs about 16 percent and IVF doubles that, at about 32 percent. This is the typical rate, and is just about in line with factors for any other method of inducing pregnancy. What this means is that the odds of a sex-selected outcome after pregnancy has occurred are fairly high.

For people who want to have a gender-specific child, there have never been more choices as they pertain to procedures for doing so. And medical science has made the odds of sex selection success better than ever. Remember, though, to take some time to research these procedures and processes very carefully before deciding on any particular method of gender selection.

Tags: Pregnancy and Child Birth