Sex Selection with IVF

By the help of modern reproductive technologies, now the fertility doctors can determine the baby’s gender and then transfer the embryo to the woman’s uterus by the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Reproductive technologies have developed widely so that by the help of a laboratory test, the embryo’s gender can be identified in the early stages. Sex selection with IVF happens by the help of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) or preimplantation genetic screening (PGS), which give the patients the option of selecting their baby’s gender.

Sex Selection Reasons

People may do sex selection for different personal, medical or cultural reasons. Some couples use sex selection for medical reasons. They need sex selection technology to prevent passing on a genetic disease which can manifest through particular gender. For instance, hemophilia, muscular dystrophy and fragile X syndrome are some gender-linked diseases that can be prevented by the technology of IVF+ PGD. By using sex selection technology, parents can select female or healthy male embryos to reduce the genetic disorder risks.

Some couples use sex selection for family balancing. They may take advantage of this technology to balance the number of girls and boys in their families.

Some others may have their own personal reasons. For example, you may have seen mothers who love to have a baby girl and fathers who looking forward to having a son. In some nations, there are some cultural merits regarding to have a child with a certain gender which may encourage the couples to use gender selection technologies.

As it was discussed, there can be lots of personal reasons behind using sex selection technology which we respect them all.

Sex Selection Methods

You may have heard many recommendations to select the gender of your baby through diet, intercourse timing, or a magical oil which can determine the baby’s gender! But these are some statements which are unreliable and do not have a true basis. Gender selection is a medical technology that only a related physician can guide you through the way.

The only reliable methods for gender selection, with almost 100 percent success rate, is undergoing the IVF technique with the use of Preimplantation Genetic Testing, or Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGT or PGD). In the past years, the sperm sorting was another way of selecting the baby’s gender which was not proven to be successful and it is not available now.

Sex Selection through IVF

The only proven scientific way of sex selection is through using IVF. This is a process in which the parents select the genetic sex of the child by testing some cells of the embryo.

 For doing this process, the woman’s eggs are retrieved and fertilized by the sperms of the man in a laboratory environment. This action can be done through intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), in case of sperm weakness. In this way, the sperm will be injected into the egg mechanically. Then the embryo’s chromosomes will be checked for containing XX or XY pairs of chromosomes. Based on the parents’ preference, the desired-sex embryo would be transferred into the woman’s womb for growing.

If there are any remained healthy embryos, they can be frozen and stored for the future use or be donated to another couple.

Gender selection success rate with PGD/PGS

The success rate of gender selection using IVF+PGD is very high, no matter it is used for medical purposes or personal ones. Although there are other methods for sex selection including sperm spinning which separates the X and Y chromosomes, the combination of IVF and PGD is the most reliable way by almost 100 percent accuracy.

However, some of the patients may not be able to produce healthy eggs and sperms because of various reasons like age, gametes quality, egg supplies, etc. In this case, first of all they may need to use donors for having healthy embryos and then attempt to have a sex selection option.

Common Questions about Gender Selection

How accurate is PGD/PGS technology in sex selection?

We should say this technology has a very high accuracy. Some studies show over 99% success rate. Physicians can estimate the accuracy of the process according to the patients’ conditions.

Does sex selection cost extra money?

PGS can have an additional cost except IVF costs. But for some patients PGD is a part of treatment to screen embryos for potential genetic disorders. In this case, there will be no need for paying supplementary fee for sex selection because the sex of the embryos is identified through PGD.

Can sex selection be performed on frozen embryos?

Yes, it can be done. However fewer IVF clinics may do sex selection on the frozen embryos.

Are you more likely to have a special-sex child using IVF?

You are about 3 to 6 percent more likely to have a boy through using IVF. Using IVF increases the chances of having a boy from 51% to 56%. Some researchers in China found that IVF conceived girls have a lower survival rate while having a higher growth defects rate.

Ethical Considerations about Sex Selection

When you select your child’s sex because of medical reasons, there may be no ethical considerations. However, when you proceed on sex selection technology because of personal preferences or family balancing, you may face some ethical concerns.

For example, by using sex selection, one sex can be promoted and this may be seen as sexism or discrimination among the others. It can also lead to sex imbalance especially among the nations who devalue one gender and merit the other.

When you select an embryo with certain gender, there can also appear another ethical conflict about unused embryos. For solving this issue, you can consider donating the other embryos, saving them for the future or you can just discard them. Of course these decisions can be very hard for many couples. By predicting these conflicts, fertility clinics had better discuss these issues before starting process of sex selection with IVF.

Author: Leila Nazari

Publisher and SEO specialist: Mohammad Reza Ranjbaran

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