WOMENS-HEALTH Messages for December, 1997: Re: gender selection

Re: gender selection

From: anneminke (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Tue, 2 Dec 1997 11:47:23 -0600 (CST)

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At Sat, 29 Nov 1997, Paula wrote: >
>At Sat, 29 Nov 1997,
>>
>>My friend has children who are girls and both she and her husband desire a boy child .
>
>They are seriously considering sperm seperation to
>>try to achieve a boy, but would welcome another child no matter what sex.
>
>Please advise on info. and addresses of places preferably here/abroad
>to contact for gender selection/sperm seperation.

Dear Paula,

I am from Holland and here there used to exist a 'gender-clinic' were couples could go who had a wish for a child of a specific gender. From the beginning it was accompanied by a lot of discussion among doctors whether this would be a fair promise to all those couples who thought this would be the solution. Most of doctors sincerely doubted this kind of gender-selection. (Selection of fast and slow swimmers). One doctor who worked there was even fired before the clinic was even opened, because he failed to explain the method and it became obvious that he also had his doubts. The results of the clinic were not very promising. Chances of success were as variable as when nature herself would have a go at it. In the end the minister of health had it close down because there was no proof of good medical practice, only moneymaking on the emotions of people.

>From what I have understood from these discussions is that the only way
to really select the gender of a child is by PID (pre-implantation diagnostic). In this country this is done in very rare cases, when a child of a specific gender runs a very high risk of a congenital defect. It means IVF-treatment and selection of the embryos. To determine which gender the embryo is, two cells are sucked from the (mostly eight-cell) embryos and then looked at under a microscope. The embryos of the 'right' gender are then placed back into the womb. This is a relatively new method, done only in very specific cases and the only method of truly selecting the gender.

I am not a doctor, but with the above knowledge in mind I think your friends will have to rely on nature! best regards, Anneminke

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