Ways to try to conceive a girl???

'women live longer and deteriorate slowly'

oh yes. I feel it happening already.

The timing doesn't work for us anyway. We have 3 ds's, all conceived well before ovulation, ds1 and ds2 because we were avoiding ovulation ( Oh, by the way the rhythm method of contraception doesn't work either!) and ds3 because we were trying for a girl.
Also, MrsNoah, my dh is always stressed out and I am a shrinking violet so there! We do plan to try again but I have resigned myself to having ds4 if we do conceive!

Agree with charlieq

Interesting theory I have always heard is that the dominant women seem to have all boys.

Another one is that stressed out men produce girls... so grab his credit card and stress him out !!

Personally, I think a quickie few days before ovulation makes girlies and on the day makes boys(works for me and have 2dds and 1ds)

londonlottie, sociologists! sigh..., they never trust biology. this link talks about it a bit www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/10.01/WhyWomenLiveLon.html

Studies have shown that women live longer than men (not always alot longer though) in most cultures both first and developing world. However I agree that since you can never have test conditions like in a laboratory we can never be sure that certain social conditions don't add something to the mix.

I personally don't think there is much difference between the sperm speed etc so even if they exist I don't think they make much difference overall, hence the reason we can't really choose between having a girl or a boy...anyway it would take away the glorious randomness of it all don't you think?

lol charlie there should have been more and in there.

and was just an excuse ti blether about sociobiology really

agree with you re boys/playground. i have a boy who likes dollies and a girl who likes thomas. veeeeery confusing for people i find.

remember that experiment where people are given baby in pink/baby in blue? i read recently it had been redone-feminism etc-and no change, ho hum.

x

I think Lord and Lady longford who had a very big family had girl boy girl boy etc deliberately using one of these methods perhaps the timing of intercourse one.

I just read a book about DNA and sex etc - Adam's Curse. It's worth reading if you like science.

oh pooh

conceiving a girl

Another thread recommended this book:

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/074753313X/ref=dp_olp_2/026-9259136-7167621\conceiving a girl

Don't know if it works.

Have to disagree with the off shore worker theory on one point. Our DS is due in May (husband works on a gas rig), although we were having lots of sex to ttc.

However, his dad also works in oil and gas and fathered 1 boy and 3 girls, so maybe we just have to have a few more kiddies to get a girl!!

We started trying on the day of ovulation, and bingo I was pregnant - with a girl.

So I am pretty sure no method is foolproof.

oh and if you look at the lifecycle of male and female humans it does seem to follow the sperm theory ie women live longer and deteriorate slowly but surely whilst men seem to age slower but die quicker/earlier. Its quite interesting really.

MrsBadger, I have read about the deepseadiver/astronaut link to having girls but the reason they gave was that the female sperm are more resilient to extremes of pressure etc than male sperm and therefore survive in greater nos. I studied biology at uni but never really came across this theory (didn't study medicine after all) I think it has some scientific merit but am sure the difference in speed/resilience etc is minimal.

xx

i used persona for both my two childrens and planned a boy first[ sex on day of ovulation] and girl second[sex 3 days prior to ovulation] and it worked with both ..im pregnant now and im hoping its a girl as i thnk 99.9% when it was conceived..day 9 and ovulated day12..so lets see if i`m third time lucky?

should read soda.

I ignored my mother's advice about trying for a boy, and now we have two wonderful girls.

onteresting point Xenia about counteracting the preference for boys in some cultures.

My mum told me to put either bicarbonate of soa or vinegar in my bath, one is for a boy, one is for a girl, can't remember which is which, but she swears by it, and I'm the result

Anyone can. You just pay, fly abroad and implant a female embryo only. Easy. 100% certain too.

If you don't want to pay then not sure. Various methods tried. After 2 daughters I followed a boy diet which seemed to work but 50% chance anyway so who knows?

Duty of all mumsnetters to have girls as there is a massive shortage in India and China you need to counteract.

oh god no fillyjonk that is not what I was saying! (whatever you think it was??) My brain is addled by late pregnancy so who knows what is coming across...

I will happily admit that I know f-all about actual biology. My gender stds degree is an MA, i.e. arts no science (They do exist but there aren't many, mine was at Birkbeck in London). So I can blether on for a while about the social construction of gender. But the 'actual' differences at the heart of it, these are things I have only been able to 'observe'/conjecture through limited experience of DS and his friends. I am still not utterly convinced by the sociobiological arguments I've heard about brain difference because I think, from my position of relative ignorance, that they (perhaps) don't take account of the sheer power of culture to determine behaviour. My innate feeling is that, whatever differences there are, we don't really have a way of pinpointing them that isn't filtered through our innate prejudices and assumptions about male behaviour.

For instance the sheer number of times my DS's behaviour, such as running away from me in a playground as fast as possible, has been greeted by complete strangers with 'well, he's a real BOY, isn't he?' On at least two occasions I have noticed said strangers totally ignoring their own pink-clad dd in the background throttling another child, or swinging with incredible athleticism from a climbing frame, none of which can be noticed presumably because it doesn't prove that princess is a real GIRL.

Well as I age all I really know is that I don't really understand anything, but I am suspicious of a lot of things...

Hunker - for the aforementioned neurotic and dominant, why not substitute caring and strong?

FWIW, apparently veggies are more likely to have girls ... as are couple where the man is a pilot or anaesthetist - there are other jobs too, but I can't remember them right now ...

me? I've got a ds, and am pg again, and think it's probably another - ds's family is very male dominated!

ejt

Apparently you are more likely to have a girl as the mother gets older - because women are more likely to successfully carry a female pregnancy than a male one as we age.

Neurotic? Dominant?

I can't see how any of you would think I'm either of those and I must insist quite strongly that you don't ever speak of me in those terms again.

am wondering now if the book might be by hillary rose, stephen rose's wife...

will ponder and perhaps google

now, charlieq

you are surely not going to suggest that societal hegemony does not taint the world of biology.

I have studied psychology and am part way through a chemistry degree. I have done some biology along the way too.

I give you

Sociobiology
IQ testing
The whole male brains/female brains debate
oh god and loads more stuff really.

There are two good books for this. One is "not in our genes" by stephen rose

Another I cannot for the life of me remember the name, but if you are anywhere near Edinburgh Uni George Square library I can tell you which shelf it was on. It bascially goes through loads of common ideas in biology and analyses them for gender bias.

Oh and theres another...the dialectical biologist, i think-lewontin.

Biologists are, IMO, especially prone to introducing societal bias into their studies because they are often being called upon to prove our prejudices.

aaargh want to write more but must go and walk kids

am at gender studies degree though

I think it's one of the very few things in life that really can't be controlled (well I know it can in a petri dish, but thats another thread...)

I happen to think there is a very good reason for this.

When my 2nd baby was due I was slightly worried that I would be dissapointed to have another boy, but the moment he was in my arms that feeling was long gone, and now pregnant with my third I am really relaxed to know that I will be over-the-moon with whatever comes.

Having said all that, there is a book I once heard of called 'how to concieve a girl/boy', but there was some talk of douching with vinegar so I steered clear!

good luck!