Along with a healthy baby born, couples when trying for their family building, also desire to have selected gender-specific birth.
From ancient history, some tips had followed to have a boy or girl child to balance the family.
However, some of these tips have followed from generation to generation without scientific evidence yet prove their efficacy.
Ancient Greek people had practiced tying off the left testicle during intercourse to conceive a body child.
In the 18th century, dignified French personnel had started to remove their left testicle to get guaranteed male infants.
Likewise, the Chinese priest had advised people suitable months for conceiving a boy or girl child after calculating their lunar calendar and the woman’s age.
In Astrology also, an astrologer developed some theory depending upon the position of the planet.
Apart from these, some general beliefs of conceiving a boy or girl include some unrealistic approaches like intercourse during full-moon for a girl and in the quarter moon for a boy; postural and dietary measures for gender selection, seasonal specification like the autumn season for the boy.
None of these have any scientific base and no definite result to identify the actual success rate of these beliefs.
In the present century, some laboratory techniques have been developed with few verified data to increase the gender-specific sperm selection by using electrical charges, or special “gels”.
But yet now these techniques are not widely used.
However, these sperm flow techniques have no assured result.
Research studies also invalidate the connection between the gender of the baby with the sexual intercourse timing concerning ovulation.
In 1950, when it had discovered that sperm plays a role in determining the sex of the baby, then gradually this fact spread to the general population.
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Slowly the myths related to the traditional gender selection process are disappearing.
However, still few people have traditional beliefs and follow them to fulfill their desires.
Some are succeeded and some failed.
Novel IVF technique assures gender selection through sperm sorting technique and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.
The male sperm has an equal quantity of X and Y chromosomes. In the sorting system, the more dense X chromosomes are separated from the less-dense Y chromosome from the semen fluid by using the centrifugation technique.
After separation, clinicians monitored motility and sperm health.
The selected healthy sperm is inseminated into the woman for further physiological activities and fetal growth.
The sperm sorting technique can be used in both IVF and IUI fertility treatment procedures.
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is a virtually assured technique of gender selection.
In this process, the gender of the embryo is pre-identified before implanting into the mother’s womb. This technique can only apply to IVF treatment.
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In this process, after fertilization of egg and sperm in the laboratory set up, a single cell is collected from the created embryo after 3 days of the fertilization through a biopsy procedure.
Then the collected cell is analyzed not only for gender selection but also to detect the genetic disorder in case either of the parents has a genetic abnormality.
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Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is specifically conducted to avoid genetic birth defects.
However, chromosomal analysis can determine gender also.
But yet now, this process is medically not allowed only for gender identification for ethical reasons.
Ravi Sharma is a self-motivated, successful entrepreneur and has a solid experience in the fertility segment. and he is the director at ARTbaby Global (ARThealthcare). He is a pharmacy graduate with post-graduation in business administration and has 14 years of rich experience in the field of infertility segment. He loves to write about IVF, Surrogacy, and other ART (assisted reproductive technology) news, issues, and updates. He is a Pharmacy graduate (B. Pharm) and M.B.A (marketing).
His most recent success includes the successful launch of the medical tourism company, ARTbaby, which offers treatment options for infertility, egg donation, and surrogacy. He likes spending time with his family and writing about various aspects of IVF surrogacy and donating eggs.