To think that I can control the sex of my future child?

[KerryAC]

I thought that being able to control the sex of my future baby is impossible. I mean in school, I was taught that chances are 50-50. But apparently some scientists think that mothers do control the sex of their babies: theconversation.com/mammalian-mums-control-the-sex-of-their-offspring-15975

Yeah I saw that but clearly it's possible for mothers to control the sex... somehow?

Erm, no. the sex is determined by the sperm. Nothing a woman can do really sways it. I've read all the literature too (have a ds and for medical reasons can only have one more, and would like a dd next time) but tbh it all looks like crap to me. we get what we are blessed with.

many mammals can do lots of things that we can't do, and no-one complains if they have sex or excrete in public either.

sorry OP, you are a homo sapiens and you can't control the gender of your baby except by killing it if it is the wrong one. Which is what quite a lot of the species does.

eggs have a Y chromosome i.e a female chromosome. When fertilised, the sperm is either X or Y, which will determine the sex.

What Euphemia says is right.
However, the whole point of this trait is to produce the gender that will pass on your genes the best, not the gender that you might want

YABU. The male determines sex via X or Y chromosomes, the only thing that can physically possibly effect is so minute it's unusable. The Y chromosome is more fragile and Y sperm can take a little longer (very little) to be made it's more squewed very slightly) towards a girl if at your conception point you are having a lot of sex. But it has to be around conception point and it's only a very small percent, it's still largely 50/50.

Also any Scientist ignorant enough to confuse sex and gender automatically goes in the 'prat' pile for me.

Interesting - I think more boys were born after two world wars to level out the population so there is some truth in this.

but not determined by the mothers, just mother nature!

Mia4- please do explain the difference between sex and gender since I am probably a "prat" for not being aware of it. (Though granted I am not a scientist).

cerealqueen, that's very interesting. In fact one of the reasons why I think we shouldn't be able to choose gender is because it will create an imbalance in the population. Judging by the endless racks of girls clothes in shops, I can see us ending up as 9 women to one man! Catastrophic in a million ways.

We mess with nature at our peril.

No you're not a prat, a scientist however should know the difference. Sex is determined by X and why, gender is a social construct decided by the individual hence why someone can biologically be male but be trans and have the gender female. Cis men and women have the same sex and gender, trans don't.

Sex=biological
Gender=social and psychological

You can chse sex through IVF, you cannot chose gender. It's one of the biggest misconceptions, and while some people may not e aware of that for someone in the field of study not to tells me they are a prat..

X and Y* even

I would refine Mias answer
Sex is genotype defined by the combination of X and Y chromosomes you carry.
Gender is phenotype determined by the X and Y chromosomes interacting with the other chromosomes and to some level environmental influences.

Thanks Mia4. Very interesting to know that.

I think if it was possible Anne Boleyn would have kept her head

Women cannot conciously choose the sex of their child. I do wonder if the human body can change the biolgical conditions inside the vagina that make it easier for either male or female sperm to survive.

Ie. do male sperm live longer than female sperm? Ie. could the body release the egg a certain time period after sex. Could hormones change the acidity of vaginal muscus or body temperature to encourage male or female sperm?

I think its an interesting area of research.

Apart from gender specific genetic conditions, why would you want to?

I don't think O.P is being unreasonable peeps she is saying she thinks she can control the sex of her future child not that she wants to!
However I don't think you can as the gender is determind by the mans sperm. xxx

You can take action to try to increase the chances of having either a boy or a girl, but nothing can be guaranteed.

Some people just can't carry a certain sex. I know a woman who had 5 boys and miscarried a girl. Maybe nature is saying that the only healthy babies she can carry to term are male for whatever genetic reason?

Chocs - I am sorry that your friend miscarried but to say that she can't carry girls is an awful thing to say. You do not know what caused the miscarriage. A little ignorant, sorry.

I don't think you are understanding what the scientists in your link are saying.

When we say that the sperm determines the sex of the baby does that mean we are saying that a man "can control the sex of his future child"? No.

I apologise if that sounded ignorant, but I do think there might be a grain of truth in the theory that some people may only be able to carry a certain sex. It may be kind of nature's sorting process. Say, if a defective male gene was present, the body may reject it, and only make girls, for example.

I know this could sound mad, and I don't pretend to be a scientist, but it's just a theory I have.

Trills- I agree-the man doesn't control or decide which chromosome meets up with the Y chromosome, so no. Quite right.

Hang on, I thought x=female egg, x or y = sperm. xx=girl, xy=boy... if I remember my higher human biology stuff correctly.

Yes.