Gender Selection

Specializing in Microsort™ and IVF + PGD Gender Selection Methods

Gender Selection Overview

The dream of a child of a certain gender, be it female or male, has been with us forever. Kings divorced queens for not bearing male children; parents in fairy tales experience all-consuming joy when, at last, blessed with a girl after many boys. Until recently, however, selecting a baby's gender was only a dream.

This all changed when gender selection (sex selection) became clinically possible, and available. Demand for gender selection has, ever since, been steadily increasing. Two medical advances have been driving forces behind this expanding demand: improvements in understanding of genetic diseases, and improvement in the ability to genetically assess embryos before transfer into the uterus (called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis or PGD).

Dr. Norbert Gleicher discusses the most reliable methods for gender selection.

Gender Selection for Medical Reasons

When gender selection is used to prevent a genetic disease, the process is called "medical gender selection." Some diseases, so called "sex-linked diseases," are inherited via the mother but only male offspring are affected by them (muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, etc.); In other cases, conditions are more severely expressed in one gender (Fragile X syndrome, autism in males, etc.) than the other. Medical reasons for gender selection can, however, also be psychological: a single female may feel better equipped having a daughter than a son; parents who lost a child may feel a strong need for a child of the same gender.

Elective Gender Selection

Sometimes genders selection can be "non-medical" or "elective." In such cases, a child of a specific gender is desired without obvious medical indications. The most frequent indication for such gender selection is "family balancing," when one gender is already represented in the family unit and the other gender is desired.

Methods for Gender Selection at CHR - IVF with PGD

Please be careful with most of the "expert" advice you might read on the Internet in regards to gender selection methods. The truth is that many of the methods simply do not work. There are only two techniques that reliably affect gender: One is In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) with PGD, and the other is an experimental sperm-sorting technique, called Microsort™.

In gender selection using IVF and PGD, embryos are created from the couple's eggs and sperm . On the third day after fertilization, when embryos have reached 6- to 8-cells, one of the cells is taken off the embryo, and is analyzed for its chromosomal makeup. (The removal of the cell does not negatively affect the embryo's growth or competency.) This chromosomal analysis allows us to determine whether the embryo is male or female. Then, only the embryos of the desired gender are transferred to the uterus.

PGD gender selection is the most reliable method for gender selection, approaching 100% accuracy (although, of course, there are always possibilities for technical errors).

» The CHR is a world renowned fertility and gender selection clinic located in New York, NY. To learn more about the differences between IVF Gender Selection and Microsort™ Gender Selection methods, please complete our FREE email consultation form.

Methods for Gender Selection at CHR - Microsort™

The other method for reliable gender selection is Microsort™, developed by the Genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax, Virginia. Microsort™ is currently on hiatus, and therefore not available in the U.S, since an FDA-approved clinical trial has been completed and is under FDA review.

Once it becomes available again, Microsort™ will improve chances for female selection to approximately 90%, while the approximate chance for a male child is at a slightly lower 85%. In this method, sperm is sorted to X-bearing sperm and Y-bearing sperm, and only the sperm that bear the chromosome for the desired gender (X for a female child, Y for a male) is mixed with the eggs to fertilize.

Because CHR is a part of the consortium that works with the Genetics and IVF Institute, we will be able to offer Microsort in cooperation with the Institute, once the protocol becomes available again in the future.

» To learn more about the differences between IVF Gender Selection and Microsort™ Gender Selection, please complete our FREE email consultation form.



Advantages of Gender Selection at CHR

CHR pioneered gender selection with a combination of IVF and PGD after the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in principle approved the concept of elective gender selection in general (Gleicher N, Karande V. Gender selection for nonmedical indications. Fertil Steril 2002;78:460-2).

It is by far the most reliable technique for gender selection, and CHR has been offering this service to qualified couples for almost 10 years. In contrast to most other IVF centers, which biopsy their embryos in house and then mail the cell that has been removed from the embryo over night to another laboratory where the genetic analysis is performed, CHR performs PGD fully i- house. This ensures highest accuracy and safety for our PGD process, assuring that embryos never leave the confines of CHR.

Except in a few select countries, gender selection is not available around the world. Couples in many countries, therefore, have no choice but to seek treatment abroad. As a result, a large part of CHR's overall patient population for gender selection comes from overseas (with gender selection being just a minute part of the center's IVF activities) . We, therefore, have developed a way to minimize your length of stay in New York City, while maintaining the high success rates CHR is known for via personalized treatment protocols and collaboration with reputable local IVF center in patient's local area (where possible).

Gender Selection Consultation

Whatever method you choose for gender selection, or even whether to pursue gender selection at all, we recommend a detailed discussion with one of CHR's physicians. As a first step, you can either complete the free Gender Selection Email Consultation Form to determine if you'll qualify for our program.

Last Updated: December 26, 2011