I sometimes hear from people who hope that they can influence their baby’s sex or gender after they become pregnant. They assume or hope that as long as the baby’s genitals have not yet been formed, they still have time to try different things to make sure that they get either the girl or the boy that they’ve been hoping for. Unfortunately, this is not the case. I will explain this more in the following article.
A Look When Your Baby’s Gender Or Sex Is Determined: I know that this is often not what folks want to hear, but once you are successful in becoming pregnant, the baby’s gender is taken out of the equation. Once the sperm chromosomes fertilize the egg, what you get is either going to be an XY which eventually becomes a male baby, or an XX which eventually becomes a girl baby. There is nothing that you can do to derail or change this outcome.
The confusion comes in, I think, because early in the pregnancy, boy and girl babies look virtually the same. And, some people think that all babies start out as girls but then eventually, if the baby grows boy parts, then it becomes male. They also think that if these boy parts don’t appear, then the fetus remains female. This isn’t entirely accurate. As I said, a baby’s gender is determined once the egg is fertilized. Just because it takes ALL of the body parts a while to develop does not mean that the gender has not already been determined.
A Look At How And When Gender Becomes Evident Or Able To Be Determined: Just because you can’t see the differences in the beginning, this does not mean that they aren’t present. However, I’m going to look at how and when these differences become evident. As I’ve alluded to, during the first six weeks of development, girl and boy babies look pretty much the same (both the internal and external genital structures are similar for both boys and girls – at least during this initial time period.) Both have gonads at this point. However, later these will evolve into either ovaries or testicles, depending upon which gender you are going to have. Boy babies begin to produce testosterone as early as 9 – 10 weeks after conception.
I’m often asked how early in pregnancy are you able to determine your baby’s gender. By week 12 at the earliest and by week 14th at the latest, the sex organs are formed. But, they still aren’t recognizable by most. Usually by week 16 – 18, these differences can be seen by ultrasound. Sometimes, amniocentesis will be necessary and this procedure can tell the baby’s gender much earlier. However, there are small risks involved with this procedure so it’s not commonly done unless there is a reason other than wanting to know your baby’s gender.
I’ve often heard that girl babies have faster heart rates than boys. But the reality is, heart rates change rapidly during pregnancy and this isn’t a scientific way to determine gender. Sure, it’s fun to guess, but this method only provides you with guesses.
If You’ve Not Yet Pregnant, You Still Have Time To Influence Your Baby’s Sex Or Gender: I hope this article has shown you that once you do get pregnant, you won’t be able to change your baby’s gender at that point. However, if you’re still trying to become pregnant, then there is still time to change your routines and methods.
You will want to determine when you ovulate and then to tweak your timing depending on whether you want a boy or a girl. (Couples wanting boys should conceive later than those wanting girls.) You will also want to look your vaginal PH as well as the positions that you use to send the sperm to the egg. I believe that all of these things can help to determine whether you’ll ultimately become pregnant with a male or a female. But, as I said, this window is only open before you have a successful conception.
