Chelsea Lee
Medical Research Editor
WhereismyDoctor.com

When to Choose Gender Selection

January 11th, 2012

There are a lot of ideas out there on how to get pregnant with a certain gender.

You can try everything from changing your diet to scheduling your moments of intimacy for the exact right minute of the day. People seem to have an idea of just how many kids of which gender will complete their perfect family, and will often go to extremes to make it happen.

Trish Corcoran is one mother who would stop at nothing to get the little girl she’s waited a long time for. After four little boys and ten heartbreaking miscarriages, Trish’s 15th pregnancy finally resulted in a healthy baby girl.

Of her baby girl, Cocoran told the Daily Mail, “When I held my daughter finally in my arms I knew that my long battle had been worth it. I had to endure the heartache of losing ten babies to have her.”

Cocoran eliminated acidic foods from her diet but ate more carrots and peppers in an effort to conceive a baby girl. Though there may not be any scientific proof for these radical methods, gender selection is a scientifically proven way for parents to ensure that they will be buying that little blue or pink outfit they’ve dreamed of.

Heather Anspach of Kentucky is one mother who couldn’t leave her third pregnancy to chance. After two boys and one girl, Heather and her husband decided they would go through In-vitro fertilization (IVF) to bring another baby girl into their family.

The IVF process is a long, expensive ordeal involving several appointments and countless tests. But to some parents, it’s all worth the end result: the desired gender.

The couple even took out of loan on their own house to pay for the gender selection, but said, “it seemed worth every penny.”

Anspach was implanted with the only two female embryos of her six that were viable, and she became pregnant on that first try with daughter Maliah.

It’s not surprise that IVF gender selection is a rather controversial subject. Perfectly happy families have come together for thousands of years without any medical intervention. Yet today, parents can add kids to the family like a menu item to their dinner table.

Some take issue with the fact that the parents are able to create children in a petri dish and then choose the one that fits into their idea of the perfect family.

Of the controversy surrounding her decision Anspach said, “I know many people are against gender selection but I feel it should be a personal choice. People are entitled to their opinion but it's our life and our family.”

The real question arises when considering IVF gender selection to prevent genetic diseases through a process called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). In cases where the parents have a good chance of passing on an inheritable disease to their child, such as cystic fibrosis, embryos can be tested before implantation to guarantee a healthy baby.

At that point these parents may have a choice between healthy boy embryo and healthy girl embryo, even if that was not the initial reason for IVF.

To learn more about gender selection, contact an infertility specialist near you.