Gender Selection

Gender Selection Overview There is a rapidly increasing demand for gender (sex) selection in the U.S. In principle two reasons can be found for this development: As our understanding of genetic diseases increases, and with it our ability to diagnose couples at risk to have affected children, we more frequently use the tool of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to genetically assess embryos prior to their implantation into the uterus. Some genetic diseases are only expressed in males and parents, therefore, at times make a conscious choice to have only female offspring. When gender selection is used to prevent a genetic disease its indication is considered medical. In contrast, if the decision to choose a childs gender is done for family balancing purposes, then the process is considered elective. CHR pioneered gender selection by IVF and PGD and offer both, medical and elective gender selection to qualified couples. In contrast to most other IVF programs, the CHR does our own PGD in house and has been offering gender selection by IVF and PGD for almost 3 years. Gender selection by IVF and PGD is by far the most accurate technique to preselect the sex of your child. If you wish to pursue a gender selection option, currently, we are offering a Free Gender Selection E-Mail Consultation. With this free e-mail consultation we will determine whether you qualify and will advice you as to the technical options that exist today for successful gender selection. Gender Selection Options Please, be careful with much of the advice you may read on the internet. It abounds with quackery and snake oils that are pushed at an uninformed public. You should know that there are only two techniques available to affect the gender of your children. They are In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) with the use of PGD and Sperm sorting for X- (female) or Y- (male). Many charlatans claim to sperm sort but you should know that there is really only one sperm sorting technique that seems to work and that technique is still under investigation. It is called Microsort and is offered by the IVF and Genetics Institute in Fairfax, Virginia under an experimental FDA-study protocol. We at CHR are part of the consortium that works with the IVF and Genetics Institute and we, therefore, can offer you Microsort in cooperation with the Institute. While the final results of the study are still pending, there can be no doubt that this technique works. It improves the chances for female, based on the most recent reports, to approximately 85%, while the chanced for successful male sorting are a little lower at approximately 75-80% it appears. Gender selection by IVF and PGD, in contrast, is even more accurate and will result in the gender of your choice in close to 100% of cases (some technical errors may happen, of course). How Gender Selection Works In this technique embryos are produced from eggs and sperm of the couple. On the third day, when the embryos have reached approximately 8-cell stage, we take one of the cells off the embryo (this can be done safely), and analyze its chromosomal make up. This then allows us to determine whether the embryo, from which the cell was taken, was female or male. Only embryos of the desired gender are then transferred into the uterus, making this a very reliable technique of sex selection. Gender Selection Next Steps The first step is easy, simply complete the Gender Selection E-Mail Consultation Form to determine if you qualify for Gender Selection.