Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it's more difficult/less common to conceive a girl?

137 replies

bmrising · 23/10/2023 20:56

I just found out today my second baby is a boy. Still over the moon of course, but have that feeling that one of each would have been lovely.

Lots of couples I know have boys and more than one at that. And they have gone on to try for another just to have a girl. There's not many people I know who have DD's. My DH is also 1 of 3 boys.

AIBU to think girls are in the minority?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
RainbowConnection1 · 23/10/2023 21:06

I'm the last girl born in our family and I'm 48! They must've broken the mould when I was born 😄.

Splodgerbodgerbadger · 23/10/2023 21:07

In my family it’s varied by generation my Dad has two brothers and one sister. Then I’m one of five and the first four of us are girls and my brother is the youngest. Of my Dads grandchildren the first four were all boys.

Poblano · 23/10/2023 21:07

MadeOfAllWork · 23/10/2023 21:07

You might find this an interesting listen. It seems it ever so slightly depends on how much sex you are having. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qw4s?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Beat me to it!

Imaginedragonz · 23/10/2023 21:09

Obviously it averages itself out as almost 50/50 but I don’t believe it’s as ‘random’ as it seems. My friends seem to have the opposite and I have the only boy in my friend group.

when we conceived him we REALLY tried, it was around and on ovulation day, I think even twice on one of the days as I was so determined it wasn’t going to be another failed attempt that month! I later found out that this is how you would ttc if you wanted a boy. I obviously had no preference as he was the first baby but decided with the second I’d look into it a bit more. The basic principle was that to conceive a girl you have to ‘try’ then stop a couple of days before ovulation (2-5 rings a bell). Whereas for a boy you’d ‘try’ on ovulation day. This is supposed to be because boy sperm are faster but die quicker so if you dtd on ovulation day, the odds of one of the fast male sperm getting there first are higher. If you dtd days before ovulation the fast male sperm have died before the egg appears so the slower (more long lasting) female sperm arrive just in time for the egg. There was a whole lot more to it about special diets and ph environments etc but I just went with the basic principle of it. Anyway we followed it when TTC number 2 just out of interest and sure enough she is a girl. Of course it could just be completely random (and most people on here will say it is) but for me that’s twice my kids have followed this rule.

I do think also you could unknowingly follow this method if you were just casually trying but not tracking ovulation and just dtd every other day. This would be more likely for you to have a girl, unless the day just happened to fall on ovulation day. People who really plan it and do the ovulation tests etc would be more likely to have a boy. Again from friends discussing how they went about ttc it seems like this could be true for them too.

I read a book on it with lots of studies and a lot of the data backed this up. There are also Facebook groups and lots of people who ‘choose’ the sex of their baby are successful (they have a percentage for accuracy). I’ve posted about it on here once and couldn’t have had a worse reaction so each to their own but for me it seems to be true anyway!

gotomomo · 23/10/2023 21:11

4 girls here. Ok two are dsd's but we have 2 girls a piece.

There's a podcast on this very topic currently. Someone else has posted the link

ActDottie · 23/10/2023 21:13

Obviously YABU because the statistics disagree with you

Yes more boys are born than girls but not materially so and not to the extent you describe

SadlyACupOfTeaDoesNotSolveEverything · 23/10/2023 21:19

I am one of four - 3 girls and a boy
I had a boy then 2 girls
Dsis1 had a girl then 3 boys
Dsis2 has 2 girls so far
Dbro is child free

MiddleParking · 23/10/2023 21:26

Latenightreader · 23/10/2023 21:02

In our NCT group there were five girls and one boy. Of the six mothers, three now have other children - one boy and three girls. The two friends who are pregnant are both carrying girls, and the colleague who had a baby recently had a girl. I was wondering recently where were all the baby boys!

In my NCT group there were six girls and three boys. Very girl-skewed - my girl was born last and we thought it had to be a boy just because there had been so many more girls in those few weeks. Then seven of us had second babies and we ended up with one boy-boy family, one girl-girl family and five families with one of each. The two remaining onlies are both girls, but still - where data was available it did end up reverting to 50/50!

Borris · 23/10/2023 21:28

I thought some men produce more x sperm and some more y. So maybe in your family the y sperm dominate? But I might be wrong

Nina9870 · 23/10/2023 21:29

In my group of friends, we all have more than one girl. We’re literally growing an army of girls!
Only two friends have one boy each, but they also both have two girls each. So, in my experience, girls are more common!

TheBirdintheCave · 23/10/2023 21:29

There have been six babies born currently in this generation of my family (to me, my two cousins and my brother) and all of them are boys! I'm pregnant with my second now and I think statistically wise we're due a girl but I am imagining it will be another boy 😂

GreenVelvetCushions · 23/10/2023 21:33

Somanycats · 23/10/2023 21:00

Yup you are right. More boys than girls are born. I'm reading 105 boys for every 100 girls.

So how come 51% of the population are female?

RudsyFarmer · 23/10/2023 21:34

I certainly couldn’t get the recipe for girls right. Luckily my boy recipe was excellent. So I think you’re right.

RudsyFarmer · 23/10/2023 21:36

GreenVelvetCushions · 23/10/2023 21:33

So how come 51% of the population are female?

Show quote history

Because more males have accidents due to high risk pursuits and a higher incident of crime and suicide?

CeliaLia · 23/10/2023 21:38

bmrising · 23/10/2023 21:00

I know the statistics are there etc, just in my circle and people I know don't seem to conceive girls! I know lots who have more than one DS

In my circles, it's the opposite. Everyone has girls, two sets of friends with 3 girls and a few with boy / girl pairs. I'm the only solo boy mum...so YABU, it's totally random and determined by the male sperm.

L353A1 · 23/10/2023 21:39

As explained in Wikipedia, Fisher's principle keeps the sex ratio near 1:1.

Suppose fewer boys are born than girls. Those boys will grow up to be men who have a better chance of acquiring a mate than girls of the same birth cohort. So they will leave more offspring. Therefore parents genetically disposed to produce males tend to have more than average numbers of grandchildren born to them.
Therefore the genes for male-producing tendencies spread, and male births become more common. As the 1:1 sex ratio is approached, the advantage associated with producing males dies away.

The same reasoning holds if females are substituted for males throughout. Therefore 1:1 is the equilibrium ratio.

Ozgirl75 · 23/10/2023 21:39

In my DH family, his dad is one of 3 boys, DH has a brother and 4/5 of his cousins are boys. 3/4 of our kids and their cousins are boys.
In my family my dad has a brother, as does my mum. We’re a very boy heavy family (we have two boys!) but I assume there are families that are the opposite!

TroglodytesTroglodytes · 23/10/2023 21:43

There is evidence that a man with more brothers than sisters is more likely to have boys. My ExH had 2 brothers and we had 2 boys, 1 girl. Interesting that your H has 2 brothers.

Nowherenew · 23/10/2023 21:45

bmrising · 23/10/2023 21:00

I know the statistics are there etc, just in my circle and people I know don't seem to conceive girls! I know lots who have more than one DS

In my circle it’s the complete opposite.

I don’t know anyone who’s had boys in my circle.

Baconisdelicious · 23/10/2023 21:46

All things being equal, males are more likely than females to die in the first 5 years. The assumption is that nature allows for that.

SaracensMavericks · 23/10/2023 21:46

In my friendship group everyone had boys first and then girls!

SaracensMavericks · 23/10/2023 21:47

GreenVelvetCushions · 23/10/2023 21:33

So how come 51% of the population are female?

Show quote history

I guess because women live longer?