Home kits claim to help you choose baby's sex; doctors say buyer beware

[CShine]

Boy or girl? Now you can pick the sex of your baby in the privacy of your own home. Or so the Internet sellers of sex-selection kits would have you believe. The latest fad in babymaking offers guaranteed, worry-free gender selection for just $199 plus shipping. Some experts call it "snake oil." But that hasn't stopped entrepreneurs from trying to capitalize on demand among some prospective parents.

The phenomenon first gained attention when some U.S. fertility clinics began offering gender selection for non-medical reasons through costly, often invasive medical procedures.

But it's been taken to a different level by purveyors of unproven home-use products, who are milking the increasing awareness about more legitimate sex selection methods and hoping to draw some of the same potential customers, said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan.

The only two medical procedures that experts say are legitimate — a method requiring in vitro fertilization and the experimental MicroSort sperm-sorting technique — have raised ethical concerns about designer babies and gender bias.

http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/0404/07sexselection.html

[SemperEadem]

1. when it fails, do they sue the company and give back the child?

[Mz Pip]

2. This kind of thing bothers me

Back when I had my kids amnios and ultra sounds were not commonplace so I did not know what I would get.

Maybe having one of each would have been nice but I had two sons and I cannot imagine my life without my #2 son. I would have missed out on this amazing, talented, funny, compassionate guy and would not have even known it.

Sometimes things are best left to nature.

MzPip
:dem:

[latebloomer]

3. I used a book

called "How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby". I already had a beautiful son and had always wanted a daughter as well. The book advocated a timing method which seemed to make sense-- I see the kit also incorporates such a method.

Worked for me, but who the hell knows? It was a damn sight cheaper than this kit, though. Ripoff.

[NickB79]

4. Timing method?

The sex of the child is determined solely by the father's sperm. Since the mother's egg can only be X-chromosome, the variable is the father's sperm cells, which can be either X or Y-chromosome. I fail to see how a timing method (I'm assuming timing the mother's menstrual cycle) would affect the sex of a child.

[latebloomer]

5. The theory

basically is that the female-producing sperm cells are slower but hardier. The male-producing sperm are faster but die off quicker. Therefore, if you want a girl you time sex a couple of days before ovulation, and if you want a boy you time it with ovulation.

Boys run in my huz's famly, and we produced a girl this way, but hey, it's purely circumstantial.