Swaying the sex

[Orangesandlemons1]

I have a wonderful ds and I am thinking about trying to conceive a second. If I do this baby will definitely by last. I’d be delighted with a baby of either sex and I know it is not a right to have a child. It may not even happen this time I’m older now and people don’t always conceive as easily second time.

I would if I was to be completely honest be thrilled with the idea of a little girl because I already have a boy who is fantastic, so would like one of the other sex to experience having a daughter. I will probably get a flaming for this but if I was to choose I would choose to have a girl this time. Are there any mumsnetters who tried to sway the odds with diet/conception timing to a baby girl, and did you have a girl?

Then I think to myself is it even reasonable to try doing this (even if it’s not very scientifically effective). A healthy baby is all anyone should really be aiming for and I would be equally happy with a another ds. Is it reasonable to try to alter the course of natures sex selection with natural methods? I just can’t shake that nagging feeling a little girl would be lovely.

So with regards to changing the odds slightly, if the theory were to be true, and some women had a slightly higher odds of conceiving a boy because they had higher sodium and potassium (more meat etc in diet so acidic conditions in vagina) as per the theory. Then some had a slightly higher chance of conceiving a girl because of alkaline environment and had higher levels of Calcium and magnesium as they are more dairy and carbohydrates.
I imagine if these women did have more chance of one sex than the other, if this theory was true, it would level itself out across the population as a whole as for every woman who eats more meat there may be one eating more dairy or carbs.

That's a lot of imagining on your part and not a lot of logic.

Who says that eating lots of meat makes for an acidic vagina anyway?

There is evidence that male chromosome sperm prefer acidic conditions and female prefer alkaline. So that’s where the theory part comes in about whether or not foods the mother eats making the vagina ph more or less acidic.

How would you explain a woman conceiving twins of each sex based on this theory?

All evidence is anecdotal. If there were any truth in it or any scientific basis then there would be investors falling over themselves to fund research and patent the theory because it would be a huge money spinner and could be life changing for inherited genetic disorders such as haemophilia which is passed on the X chromosome of boys.

It's just anecdotes from mothers who had 2 boys for example and started eating more bananas and then had a girl.

There is evidence that male chromosome sperm prefer acidic conditions and female prefer alkaline

Evidence? Link?

/There is evidence that male chromosome sperm prefer acidic conditions and female prefer alkaline

Is there though? Or is this just theory and assumption?

I was taking magnesium and calcium vitamins from about 3 months before ttc dc3 ( girl) but that was for migraines.

SO, I have no willpower and have allowed myself to get sucked in again...

I imagine if these women did have more chance of one sex than the other, if this theory was true, it would level itself out across the population as a whole as for every woman who eats more meat there may be one eating more dairy or carbs.

No, this is what I'm trying to say, it wouldn't balance globally. Because there are places where people eat almost no dairy, the average amount of meat eaten varies enormously across cultures, and so does carbohydrate intake. These variations are much bigger across cultures than within, particularly in less developed cultures (two Japanese women will, on average, have much more similar diets to each other than to two Ethiopian women, even though what each individual woman eats varies). If these things make a difference then these cultures would see different sex ratios to each other. But they don't.

What is this nonsense? A healthy vagina is naturally acidic, that's because it's full of healthy bacteria that release lactic acid.
If the ph increases (becomes less acidic) then other bacteria will flourish causing infection or bacterial vaginosis. An example would be if you took strong anti biotics and your vagina becomes less acidic as the good bacteria are killed off, resulting in infection down there.

Your vagina is never alkaline.

Semen however is alkaline. This is why you can sometimes get an infection if you're having lots of sex. And why it's labelled the Honeymoon disease.
It has no effect on determining the sex of a baby.

Like the person upthread who said that their partner had given up salt and it resulted in a DC of particular sex (I can't remember which). Well, average salt intake has gone down significantly in recent years in the UK, so we should see a shifting sex ratio. But we won't. These small differences (say 5%) would be hard to spot for an individual but really easy for a whole population - so by looking for anecdotal evidence and ignoring the basic fact that sex ratios are (extreme circumstances like war and famine aside) very stable across time and space you're looking at things completely upside down.

If it bothers you to the point your willing to try old wives tiles to have a girl, i wouldnt have a second child
I wonder if the people making comments like this have DC of the same sex and are annoyed that people like the OP may think they might want one of the other sex...

FWIW I have one of each and am so happy about it. Not planning on having more but would have tried for a girl if the first two were both boys.

From personal experience only. 3 girls whee we had sex the day before ovulation. And our son conceived on ovulation day. Make of it what you will.

Exactly, a healthy is acidic. If your vagina is alkaline you aren't more likely to have a girl, but you are more likely to have an infection and inflammation, as well as low oestrogen levels.

Even without that, if a meat heavy diet meant having boys and a plant based diet meant girls, wouldn't someone have noticed that vegetarians had an unusual amount of daughters? And wouldn't India be rather more lacking in men?

I had always dreamt about having a daughter, even when I was little I already visualised her - maybe because I never got the baby sister I longed for!
When I got married we made the decision we both wanted 3 children. Our first 2 were little boys and of course I was thrilled to have 2 beautiful healthy babies. I was actually so happy to see how close the boys were (and still are) and I just felt it was a blessing that these little boys have each other as a best friend. I did have that thought in the back of my mind that if we were to have another it was quite likely to be another boy. I admit I did get that heartache thinking I may never have that mother and daughter relationship I’d so desired. At the time, we were not trying for a baby. In fact my husband who was currently out of work between jobs, said he was happy with just our 2 and it wasn’t the right time. Lo and behold I discovered I was pregnant. I was very shocked as we had not done the deed near ovulation (in fact it was almost a week before!) I since learned that sperm can live for this length of time. Fast forward 9 months and our daughter was born. I have no idea if her conception had to do with timing, but I’d like to think she was meant to be. For the record I have loved having a little girl to do all the girly things with (I’m very feminine!) but equally love the joy my boys bring. Each baby is a blessing.

Sex before ovulation is more likely a girl, sex during is more likely boy.

No it doesn't. As has been already discussed on this thread, this has been specifically disproven, and Shettles was completely wrong about what he was looking at and even about the idea that there are "boy" and "girl" sperm that have different behaviours and preferred environments.

3 girls whee we had sex the day before ovulation. And our son conceived on ovulation day. Make of it what you will.

Nothing. I make absolutely nothing of that.

And nor should anyone else.

Only thing I have heard is sex before ovulation to try for a girl. Nothing will ever guarantee it though.

I was speaking to my manager the other day and his input was there are more girls than boys on this planet (not sure where he got that from and haven’t bothered investigating) so maybe your chances are slightly higher to have a girl than a boy if this is true

his input was there are more girls than boys on this planet (not sure where he got that from and haven’t bothered investigating) so maybe your chances are slightly higher to have a girl than a boy if this is true

He was, er, completely wrong about that. There are actually slightly more boys conceived than girls (we're talking 51:49 rather than a significant discrepancy), but more male embryos are miscarried. The ratio at birth is therefore close enough to 50:50 to make no difference, although there still just barely tend to be more boys born than girls. Boys and men do tend to have shorter lifespans than women and die in accidents more frequently, but the only places you get real discrepancies are where sons are highly prized and/or a one-child policy is in place, and you see sex-selective abortion of female foetuses and infanticide of female babies.

Nope. more men than women in the world. 1.080 male to female.

Sex before ovulation is more likely a girl, sex during is more likely boy.

If this were true IUI (intra uterine insemination) would result in considerably more boys, but it doesn't.

As the mother of a baby who was born critically ill and now has a life long health condition, I find these threads sad. I'm also jealous of how secure everyone is in their belief that they will have a healthy baby.

FourForYouGlenCoco what about all the girls around the world who are not wanted, or valued?

Oh no - I was the geneticist on the last thread about this that got shut down.

Good luck TTC your second baby OP.

The reason there isn't evidence to disprove theories surrounding diet it because it wouldn't be ethical to conduct studies to get said evidence - you can't randomise a group of women trying to conceive to different diets to test it out because what if one of the diets had a negative impact on the health of any conceived baby? It would never get through a research ethics committee.

Likewise diet studies are also very difficult to control for - unlike taking a medication or other intervention, which doctors/study organisers can easily control access to, food is everywhere and participants cannot always be relied upon as the most reliable source of what they have/haven't eaten.

A lack of evidence DISproving a theory does not mean that the theory works. There is a small amount of evidence that diet can affect gender in mice - something to do with lower blood sugars producing slightly more girls.

There is no way to change the facts of conception however if you wish to try something out then yes, there's no harm in it. Best of luck with everything but please, please do not put tampons soaked in anything up your hoo-ha!

Also @MargaretCavendish I think you're my thread hero.

The reason there isn't evidence to disprove theories surrounding diet it because it wouldn't be ethical to conduct studies to get said evidence - you can't randomise a group of women trying to conceive to different diets to test it out because what if one of the diets had a negative impact on the health of any conceived baby? It would never get through a research ethics committee

I would have thought this too but I actually found more than one in the journals where they have done just that! No extreme diets or anything but yes, they have been done.