Conceiving a child is one of nature's greatest mysteries. However, it is human nature to strive to unravel mysteries, and this one has already been practically solved. People have learned to perform this sacrament outside the human body - through IVF, although most children are still born in the mother's body. How to plan the gender of the child? Are there ways to influence the process of determining the gender of the unborn baby?

What determines the sex of the unborn child and when is it formed?

There are many theories about what determines the gender of the unborn child. For example, if a woman planning a pregnancy eats “male” food - meat, spicy, fatty foods, then she will become pregnant with a boy. If she intensively absorbs sweets, she should be the mother of a girl. Another statement says that a couple will have a child of the gender corresponding to the owner of the younger blood at the time of conception.

To plan the conception of a boy or a girl, you need to know what can determine the gender of the fetus. It has been established that the sex of a conceived baby depends on the set of chromosomes it receives. All the information that cells need to “build” a new organism is contained in 46 chromosomes. 44 of them are the same for everyone, and the remaining 2 are sex chromosomes. The combination of these two chromosomes determines the sex of a person.

The sex cells of a man and a woman contain half of the chromosome set - 23 each. Eggs have only the female type of sex chromosomes, or X chromosomes, and sperm can have an X or Y chromosome in their set. If the egg is fertilized by a sperm with an X chromosome, a girl will be conceived. Otherwise a boy will appear.

Other methods of planning the gender of the child.

Let us bring to your attention another method of planning a child - this is the French diet, which is quite popular, but causes partial concern, since it is based on a conscious long-term (at least three months) reduction in the consumption of vitamins and microelements. The authors of this method claim that by following such a diet, there is a possibility of giving birth to a baby of the desired gender. So, for those who want a boy, they should eat foods that contain more sodium and potassium, and those who want a girl should eat magnesium and calcium. This diet must be strictly followed by both men and women. If the couple chooses this method, then they must add the foods shown in the table to their diet.

The Chinese method of planning the baby's gender takes into account the mother's age at the time of conception and the month when it occurred. Information about the future father is not taken into account at all. In fact, for many women who have given birth, the data coincides with reality. In this case, the main thing is to clearly know the month when fertilization occurred.

Is there a guaranteed way to conceive a boy or girl?

Parents are practically unable to plan their child’s gender. The same cannot be said about fertility doctors. There is a guaranteed way to conceive a boy or girl - this is an in vitro fertilization procedure with genetic analysis of the material used.

In Russia, couples who decide to undergo IVF are not allowed to choose the sex of their unborn child. However, in case of a high risk of transmitting hereditary diseases to the baby through the male or female line, preimplantation genetic diagnosis is performed, for which a blastomere biopsy is taken from a 5-day embryo. During the study, it is also possible to determine the sex of the embryo (for a fee - at least 55 thousand rubles for 1 blastocyst).

A similar service is provided abroad. However, is it worth going for in vitro fertilization just for the opportunity (by the way, not 100 percent) to give birth to a daughter or son?

Gender planning methods

The desire to have a baby of a certain gender in some circumstances is understandable. For example, a happy father of 3-4 daughters often dreams of a son. The issue of the birth of an heir is especially acute in Eastern families. A mother raising several boys may passionately desire the appearance of a daughter - a helper and like-minded person.

People have long sought to understand and influence the mechanism by which the sex of an unborn child is determined. This is how numerous theories and methods for predicting the gender of children emerged. Planning the sex of a child, according to their authors, is based on:

• forecast of Japanese astrologers,
• Chinese calendar,
• blood of father and mother.

By date of birth of parents and month of conception

It is believed that this method was invented by Japanese astrologers, based on their observations of people’s behavior, changes in their bodies and the influence of celestial bodies on all this, and allows one to predict the moment of conception of a baby of the desired gender. Allegedly, the victory of the feminine or masculine principle depends on the influence of stars and planets on people, their location at one time or another in life.

To determine the gender of the planned child, three values ​​will be required: the month of birth of the mother, father and conception. Japanese astrologers have compiled two tables (pictured). In the first, you need to find the intersection point of the parents’ birth months and remember the number that is placed in it. For example, a woman was born in December, and a man was born in July. At the point of their intersection there is the number 4.

In another table, we find the line with the number 4 and look at what month conception must occur in order for a girl to be born or a boy to be born. It turns out that the probability of having a boy is highest if conceived in August and December (the greatest number of advantages), it is better to try to conceive a girl in January and from May to July.

In most cases, the chances of conceiving a daughter or son are equal. Before you start planning conception, it makes sense to check the accuracy of the method on your friends who have children.

By mother's age and month of conception

Another popular method of influencing the appearance of an heir or heiress is to use an ancient Chinese table. In this case, what matters is the number of completed years of the mother at the time of conception and the month in which it occurs. However, specific nuances should be taken into account.

The Chinese New Year does not start on January 1st. The date is determined differently each time in accordance with the lunar phases, but falls between the 21st days of January and February. In addition, it is believed that a newborn already has a year of life behind him, since 9 months in the mother’s womb also count towards him. Thus, 20 full years of a woman according to the ancient Chinese table will correspond to the 21st year.

Another feature of the ancient Chinese table is that the numbering of months also begins with the date of the Chinese New Year, and this is not always January. For example, in 2018, the Chinese began celebrating the New Year on February 16th, and the first month should be considered February. In 2019, the countdown will begin on February 5th, but in 2020 – on January 25th, so in 2020, the Chinese month numbers will correspond to their European values.

Knowing this, you can use the table shown in the photo below. You need to add a year to your full age (or two, if another birthday is celebrated at the time of the planned conception) and select the month in which, according to the table, a boy or girl will be conceived.

This method, which allows you to plan a boy or girl, would seem to be reliable, proven over thousands of years, since it is called “ancient Chinese”. However, for some reason it does not help the Chinese themselves plan the birth of a baby of a certain gender (in China it is allowed to have two children only in the case of multiple pregnancies or the birth of the first girl).

By blood renewal

According to the pseudo-scientific theory of blood renewal, every few years the cells of this biological fluid are completely replaced by new ones. In women this occurs within 3 years, in men the cycle lasts a year longer. This supposedly directly affects the gender of the child: it will be the same as that of the parent whose blood is “younger” at the time of conception.

This can be calculated as follows. The full age of the mother is divided by 3, the father - by 4. Whoever has the smaller number in the remainder is the owner of younger blood and determines the sex of the unborn baby. For example, a potential mother is 25, a father is 28. 25:3 = 8 and 1 in the remainder, 26:4 = 6, the remainder is 2. Younger blood of a woman means a girl will be born.

The method also has its own characteristics. Its authors argue that large blood losses, for example after injuries or operations, contribute to faster blood renewal, so it is necessary to begin a new countdown from these events.

Choosing the time of conception according to the ovulation schedule

According to the observations of reproductive specialists, sperm carrying different sex chromosomes also have other differences. It turned out that reproductive cells with a male set are more mobile and are able to move faster towards the goal. Spermatozoa, which are carriers of the female chromosome set, are slower, but they are more tenacious and retain mobility and the ability to fertilize much longer. This allows you to predict who will be born at one time or another in the cycle. In other words, you can conceive a child of the desired sex by having sexual intercourse on a certain day.

Some gynecologists recommend that couples dreaming of a boy have sexual intercourse directly on the day of ovulation, as well as the day before and the day after it. If you plan to have a girl, you should have sex 4-7 days before the release of the egg and abstain on the day of ovulation. Then, mainly X-chromosome carriers will “survive” until the moment of fertilization.

You can find out the day of ovulation by keeping a graph of basal temperature (the day before it decreases by a few tenths of a degree). The most effective way to track ovulation is to use special rapid tests that react to luteinizing hormone in the urine.

According to parents' blood type

The simplest and at the same time the most dubious way to plan the sex of an unborn child is based on the blood type of its potential parents. This method does not stand up to the simplest criticism, because a person’s blood type is a value that does not depend on external circumstances or internal processes and does not change throughout life. It turns out that the same people should give birth to children of only one sex. In fact, this is far from the case.

You can test this theory in practice without waiting for the birth of your own child. Using the table below, you can see whether its values ​​coincide with reality, using your own example or the example of familiar families.

Conception calendar for September 2020

The conception calendar is perhaps the best way to select the days for conceiving a child so that the pregnancy proceeds most favorably, and the birth itself is successful and on time. The tradition of calculating the optimal days for conception according to the lunar calendar is entirely based on the experience of our ancestors. It was they who first noticed the correspondence between the character, as well as the mental and physical development of the child and the phases of the moon. All parents dream of their children growing up healthy and happy - read the conception horoscope compiled for you by professional astrologers of Astrostar.ru.

Are there diets for conceiving a child of a certain gender?

There are many diets that supposedly affect the conception of a child of a certain gender. To conceive girls, foods rich in carbohydrates are recommended, and expectant mothers of boys are advised to eat pickles and canned food. Considering that the sex of a child is determined, albeit unconsciously, by the father and not by the mother, the assumption that it is influenced by the food consumed by the woman seems very strange. It is more reasonable to assume that a man’s diet needs to be adjusted. However, there is no evidence that the diet of the future father affects the gender of the child.

A scientific look at folk signs and methods of planning the sex of a baby

According to scientists, it is almost impossible to plan the gender of the child in advance, predict or somehow calculate. Floor planning is a thing of the future.

The influence of celestial bodies on the process of conceiving a particular baby can neither be proven nor disproved, although it is quite possible to verify the reliability of the Japanese or ancient Chinese method. The theory that the gender of a conceived child depends on the blood type of mom and dad is refuted by a survey of relatives and friends (especially those with brothers and sisters born to the same parents).

The theory of blood renewal is also not supported by scientific data. Blood cells have different “life expectancies.” Each red blood cell exists for only 3–4 months, a leukocyte lasts from several hours to 10–12 days, and some lymphocytes remain in the blood throughout their lives. At the same time, the duration of existence of certain blood cells does not depend on the gender of the person.

Perhaps the only way to plan sex that has at least some scientific basis is to use an ovulation schedule. Its disadvantage is that intimate relationships in this case are deprived of romance, turning into a kind of tool for “preying” a baby of the desired sex.

Planning the gender of the child

Pregnancy and childbirth have long been the subject of many rumors and speculations. How to distinguish scientific information from myths and prejudices? The expectation and birth of a baby is one of the most significant events in a family’s life. The question of who will be born - a son or a daughter - is also one of the main ones, especially if there are already children in the family. Often, future parents, even at the stage of pregnancy planning, begin to study popular literature, listen to the advice of friends, follow numerous recommendations of healers - and all with one goal: to give birth to a child of the desired gender...

"Folk" methods

There are many “folk” signs and rituals that supposedly guarantee the conception of a child of a certain gender. Most experts consider these methods absolutely meaningless, and positive results are more random, psychologically determined or intuitively predicted by future parents. Stubborn statistics do not give the green light to any of the “folk” methods of sex planning.

If you combine all such methods, ancient Chinese and ancient Japanese tables for planning the sex of a child can be found on the Internet, you can get various instructions. For example, to conceive a boy, you need to plan conception in odd-numbered months in even years of your life or in even-numbered years (the month number is divided by 2). You also need to have sex at night, when there is a month in the sky, not a full moon, and there is no precipitation. The bedroom should be cool, the window should be open, you should lie with your head facing north, you should put some “masculine” attribute under the pillow - a toy gun, a car, or, at worst, a can of beer. Those couples where the husband loves his wife more than she loves him have a greater chance of conceiving a son. During sexual intercourse, a man should achieve orgasm earlier than a woman, and after sex, future parents are advised to remain awake for a long time. Before the onset of the important night, for at least three weeks, a woman should eat meat and fish products, with the exception of crabs, shrimp and caviar, fresh and dry fruits, potatoes, mushrooms, drink tea, coffee, forgetting about milk and dairy products, as well as bread and egg yolks. All dishes should be salted and you should not be afraid to eat canned food. Before the crucial hour, the husband should wash the testicles with cold water to increase sperm activity.

To conceive a girl, the year and month of pregnancy must be either even or odd. The day should be rainy, the moon phase is full moon. In these cases, you need to have sex in the evening, in a room painted pink, lie with your head facing south, and put a pink ribbon under the pillow. The window should be closed, and the air in the room should be scented with perfume or deodorant. Girls are guaranteed to couples where the wife is more sexually active and loves her husband more than he loves her. Following a dairy diet helps in conceiving a girl; fish, bread, carrots, cucumbers, and greens are allowed. The consumption of dried fruits and meat is limited, carbonated water, salt and spices are excluded. The girl's future father should warm his genitals with warm underwear to reduce the activity of male reproductive cells. All of the methods listed are quite absurd and have no scientific basis, but with strong faith in them, they may show some effectiveness. You should be especially careful when following the described diets, since none of them is balanced and complete in composition, which can adversely affect the health of the mother and child.

"New Blood"

One of the frequently discussed methods has the sonorous name “blood renewal”. It is believed that in men the blood is renewed every 4 years, and in women every 3 years. If a person has had some kind of surgery or blood loss during his life, then the countdown begins not from the day of birth, but from the date of this blood loss. Thus, the age or time since the last blood loss is divided by 4 in men, and by 3 in women (if the mother has Rh-negative blood, the opposite is true - for men the denominator will be 3, and for women - 4). Whoever has the larger balance (mom or dad) has “younger”, stronger blood, therefore, the child will be of the same gender. The method has not received any scientific justification. From a scientific point of view...

According to medical statistics, on average, 106 boys are born per 100 girls. Even more male embryos are produced, but they are more vulnerable. This initial imbalance of the sexes compensates for the large losses of males in the prenatal period, in the first year and throughout life. Male embryos, like boys in their first year of life, die more often. Dangerous games, male professions, wars, addiction to addictions, unfortunately, often lead to the death of adult men, and the average life expectancy of the stronger sex in almost all countries of the world is less than that of women. Therefore, gradually the initial imbalance is leveled out, and by reproductive age the sex ratio approaches equilibrium: one to one.

The sex cells of a man and a woman - sperm and eggs - carry half the set of genetic material - chromosomes: one sex chromosome and 22 somatic (non-sex) chromosomes. Thus, the sperm and egg contain 23 chromosomes. When these cells merge during the process of fertilization, the individual genotype of a new person is formed - either 46 XX or 46 XY. Sex is determined by the combination of two sex chromosomes: the combination XX is characteristic of the female sex, and XY is characteristic of the male sex. In any woman, all eggs contain one X chromosome (there are simply no other sex chromosomes in the female body). There are two types of sperm in men: those with an X chromosome and those with a Y chromosome. If the egg is fertilized by an X sperm, a girl will be born, if Y, a son will appear in the family. Thus, the gender of the future baby depends ONLY ON THE MAN! Therefore, disappointments, dissatisfaction with the gender of the newborn baby and complaints against his wife on the part of the new father, sometimes reaching anecdotal situations and oddities, are completely unfounded. For the same reason, all methods of planning the baby’s gender related to the expectant mother (calculating her age, day and month of birth, diet, etc.) are absolutely unfounded. A woman of any age, with any diet, can give her baby only an X chromosome, and the responsibility for the second chromosome - X or Y, which complements the necessary set, on which it will depend on whether she will bear and give birth to a son or daughter - lies entirely with the father of the child . It must be said that some floor planning methods are based on scientifically proven facts.

Sex planning based on ovulation date

The method is based on the existing difference between X and Y sperm. The X chromosome is much larger and “heavier” than the Y chromosome. Therefore, X-sperm are slower, but much more resilient and viable than their faster Y-brothers. Fertilization of an egg by a sperm is possible only after its release from the ovary, i.e. after ovulation. If sexual intercourse took place several days before ovulation, then the likelihood of giving birth to a girl increases - most likely, only long-living, hardy X-spermatozoa remain in the woman’s genital tract, which will receive the honorable mission of fertilization. If future parents manage to guess the day of ovulation, abstaining from sex for at least a week before this day, and sexual intercourse occurs on the day of ovulation, then the likelihood of conceiving a boy increases: light and extremely mobile Y-sperm will be the first to reach the egg, ahead of the heavier X-sperm. spermatozoa.

Another scientific explanation for this method is that the pH of the vaginal secretion changes depending on hormonal fluctuations during the cycle: 2-3 days before ovulation, the environment in the vagina is more acidic, which contributes to a faster death of Y-sperm. In other words, if sexual intercourse occurs before ovulation, then the “boy” sperm die. During ovulation, the pH of the environment slightly increases (alkalinizes), which preserves the more vulnerable carriers of the male chromosome. Thus, to increase the likelihood of conceiving a boy, you need to have sexual intercourse on the day of ovulation or immediately after it. Dependence of the child's gender on the sexual activity of the parents

With high sexual activity and regular sexual life (sexual intercourse occurs daily or every other day), boys are more often born (the likelihood of fertilization with fast Y-sperm is higher). With low sexual activity, the likelihood of having a girl increases (X-sperm “wait” for ovulation in the woman’s genital tract, since they are viable up to 4-5 days after intercourse). The method is effective in 80% of cases. True, it is difficult to use for women with an irregular cycle, in which it is difficult to determine the pattern and exact day of ovulation. It should be taken into account that even in healthy women with a fairly regular menstrual cycle, the date of ovulation may shift.

Practical advice

It is necessary to determine the time of ovulation over several cycles or according to the basal temperature chart (with the normal course of the menstrual cycle before ovulation, the temperature in the rectum is below 37 ° C, on the eve of ovulation the temperature additionally decreases by several tenths of a degree, and after ovulation it rises to 37 ° and above) , or using daily ultrasound from approximately the 10th day of the menstrual cycle until the release of eggs (dominant) follicle containing the egg. It disappears after ovulation, and in its place a corpus luteum forms, also diagnosed by an ultrasound doctor. Some women subjectively feel ovulation, for example, they feel pain in the lower abdomen, nausea, and note the release of ovulatory mucus from the genital tract on the day of ovulation - such mucus is viscous and quite abundant. When planning to conceive a daughter, sexual intercourse should be 2-3 days before the calculated date of ovulation; if you want to conceive a son, you should abstain from sex at least 2-3 days before ovulation, and have sexual intercourse within 24 hours after the release of the egg from the ovary.

Sperm division into X and Y

Spermatozoa are separated in an electric field, using laser technology, and flow cytometry (staining sperm with special dyes and then dividing them into 2 types). After performing one of these procedures, the egg is fertilized in a test tube with a selected sperm, an embryo of the desired sex is obtained and it is introduced into the uterine cavity (IVF).

Even this scientifically proven method does not provide a 100% guarantee. In addition, possible genetic changes when using various artificial sperm sorting procedures are not fully understood. And the selection of embryos of a certain sex is practically the same as selective abortion. In addition, IVF is an expensive method. Although in the future, it is possible that sperm separation will help solve the problem of preventing hereditary diseases associated with gender.

Thus, none of the listed methods provides a 100% guarantee of the desired result. In addition, it is important to remember that the birth of a healthy child of any gender - a son or daughter - into a family is the most significant and happiest event! Olga Komova Obstetrician-gynecologist, Moscow

Magazine “9 months” No. 01 2007