Is there any truth in the saying that you can only carry to term one sex or another?

[Gateau]

I have one DS and have had three mcs, two of them consecutive.
Some people have said maybe I can't carry baby girls to term. Do you think there is any truth in people not being able to carry one sex or another?

[Buda]

Am not sure how true it is but I think that there are certain conditions that affect one sex more than the other and therefore may lead to miscarrying that sex.

[peanutbutterkid]

I know someone who has 2 boys, 2 girls. She also has had 3 m/c and a termination for severe abnormalities. So it doesn't fit the theory very well.

[Disenchantegg3]

My mum gave birth to 4 healthy girls, she M/C 3 boys, the doctors just said she couldn't carry boys. They never gave her any kind of explination and she nebver asked

I was terrified I would be the same but Ive had 3 healthy pregnancies, 2 boys, 1 girl.

I'm sorry for your losses.

Do you know if any of your lost babies were girls?

[Disenchantegg3]

Peanut I don't think the theory is EVERYONE that MC is doing so because of gender, just certain women can't seem to carry specific sexes.

I'm no expert, far from it, but my mum did know that 2 of the babies were definatly boys, she had late losses.

[lollyheart]

My nan believes she cant carry boys, she had 5 girls but sadly lost 3 boys in late pregnancy.

I thought maybe i could not carry boys, my 1st pregnancy was a mc then i had a dd, my 3rd pregnancy was a mc,so i thought maybe they were boys but then my 4th pregnancy was a ds, my 5th pregnancy was a mc then went on to have another ds as the doctor said its just bad luck

[Gateau]

THanks for help, everyone.
No, I don't know whether the babies from the three mcs were boys or girls. They were all early on.

[lissielouwithbunnyears]

i have never really held with the theory myself, obviously there are genetic conditions that affect the sexes differently, but my cons has always maintained that its unlikely that i can only carry boys.

[Poppet45]

Baby boys are much more vulnerable in the womb than girls, and have a higher initial infant mortality. This lack of vigor is one of the reasons scientists think there's a bias for boys higher up the social pecking order... as they need better conditions to thrive. And there is a distinct skew towards girls for single mums. Sorry if that sounds offensive but that's what the stats bear out...

As for the differences between the sexes it's possible that if you have a sexually selected condition lurking in the particular genetic makeup of you and your partner which only manifests itself in one sex: ie where the abnormality is only coded on the Y chromosome - only boys would be adversely affected, or one of the mum's Xs has a recessive trait - girls would be fine as they have another good copy of the gene from dad but half of all boys would get the nasty version, as they only get a Y from dad instead, not a healthy X.

[Beccabump]

My mum had real trouble carrying boys. She had 1 boy mc and also lost my twin brother.

I assumed I would be the same having very similar genetic traits to my mum and having had a mc before conceiving and carrying DD, imagine my shock at finding out I am now carrying a boy! I am 25 weeks and all seems healthy.

I can't say for certain that there is any particular condition that means you can't carry the sex, but I feel so sorry for having to go through this. As has been said it could just be very bad luck.

I wish you every success if you decide to try again xxx

[MayorNazeNotWithChoccyEggs]

interesting - hadn't really thought about it but actually my mum had 3 girls and a boy - girls were all late, bro was a month early for no apparent reason

[Jenski]

Poppet45, interesting stuff - where did you read the stats? I would like to read them, if you can remember, thanks

[Poppet45]

Here you go:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3754262.stm

it's from the BBC so doesn't go into much detail but is a quick summary. There are a couple of other studies which say the same thing but couldn't remember the authors... I'll blame the baby brain.
I know loads of couples who had a girl first, then once they were really settled together had a boy next... I wonder.
Mother nature might not be politically correct but she sure is a pragmatist and seems to work with what you've got.

[PinkTulips]

a friend of mine is convinced she can't carry boys.. she has 3 girls with lots of MC's and a molar pregnancy interspaced between the pregs

[PinkTulips]

meant to ad... she asked her consultant and his response was 'we simply don't know..... with the vast majority of MCs the sex is unknown which makes is impossible to speculate'

[angel1976]

I have heard that a woman is more likely to miscarry boys than girls... A friend of mine had 3 boys before she had a girl (and about 9 m/cs in between) and thought she couldn't carry a girl but her doctor told her it was more likely the other way round. Another friend of mine has had two girls and miscarried three times in between and she believes they were boys though she really wants to go for a third and for it to be a boy so fingers crossed for her.

It is a well-known scientific fact isn't it that boys are just more vulnerable i.e. in areas of high pollution, there will be more girls born than boys? Also, smokers are more likely to have girls. So do deep sea divers, astronauts and pilots! Very interesting when you delve into it...

BBC article here about smokers having more girls

[Gateau]

Mmm, interesting. Thanks for all your comments.
Let's see what happens in Oct/Nov when no 2 comes along! If I have another boy I'll be pretty sure the theory is correct!

[lucykate]

i don't know for sure, but my first pregnancy was dd and i was in and out of hospital, had lots of problems, bleeding etc. then after dd, i had 2 m/c's. my only problem free pregnancy was ds. my mum has always suspected the 2 i lost were girls, and i have difficulty carrying girls so was very lucky to have dd.

[JaquelinehydeAllTheEggs]

I have no idea about this subject but damn it's interesting.

My Mum who is a heavy smoker has had 5 healthy boys, 2 healthy girls and miscarried 3 unknown babies. So from what I have read today she is the exception to the rule, yes?

Anywho, if different women in different circs carry certain sexes better. Then what kind of circs influence men, and their production of x and y sperm that decide the sex of the baby in the first place. I have heard of diet and type of underwear having an effect but what else? Is Mother Nature involved in that selection too?

[Poppet45]

It's not just down to men, the sex is actually determined by what sperm survive in the woman. Y sperm (boys) can swim faster because the Y chromosome is so much shorter and they are carrying less weight, however changes in pH can kill them off quicker than X sperms for girls. So the health, diet, heck who knows even stress levels of the woman may also play a role in determining the sex.

[angel1976]

I think in the old days, surely just based on the frequency of the pregnancy, it was more likely to get a mix of gender?!!! My paternal grandmother had 4 boys and 1 daughter and the wife before her (who died before my grandmother married my grandfather) had 4 boys and 4 girls (I think, it's hard to keep track). Though who knows how many miscarriages there were that they did not know about (especially in the days before scans and hospitals became the norm!)? People today are more likely to have just 1 or 2 babies so it would be quite hard really wouldn't it to determine if there was a true bias towards one gender or just pure luck? It's a really interested subject I think!

[angel1976]

interested = interesting

[thunder2006]

I have a friend who has 3 daughters. She miscarried 3 boys inbetween having her youngest 2 girls.

[PrettyCandles]

I have one girl and two boys. I had two very early miscarriages, one of which I'm convinced was female, because I had morning sickness from before I could even test - just as it was with dd's pregnancy.

I'm one of 3 myself - one boy and two girls - and my mum had one miscarriage.

So I don't think the theory holds water.

[georgimama]

I know boys are more likely to die in the first 2 years of life than girls - the birth rate is not evenly split between boys and girls - it is about 51% boys but more die . I don't know if that correlates to MC as well.

As others have said, some women are carriers for genetic diseases which affect boys but not girls, and this might mean that they effectively can "only" have girls.

[mumof3tobe]

I have 1 boy and 1 girl and think i'm carrying another boy and am about 20 weeks.
I carried both to term and haven't had any miscarriages. So don't think the theory hold either.