Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

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
Mamai90 · 24/10/2023 00:04

My grandmother had ten children, five girls and five boys, twenty grandchildren, ten girls and ten boys, and thirty two great grandchildren, sixteen girls and sixteen boys (well, it will be sixteen of each, I'm pregnant with a girl and I'm the youngest grandchild and in my forties so it'll definitely be the last great grandchild born).

Out of my friendship group we have more girls between us than boys.

It's pretty equal I'd say.

TheGoogleMum · 24/10/2023 00:05

The road I grew up on had 4 houses in a row with kids (varying in age by around 12 years). 11 girls 0 boys

Deathbyfluffy · 24/10/2023 00:05

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

Then it’s just a statistical anomaly in your circle of friends - the overall numbers are roughly 50/50

PerfectYear321 · 24/10/2023 00:06

You are correct OP
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46597323

When I had my youngest there were only two girls in the nursery and I actually googled it to see what was going on.

That year was particularly strange though

Will it be a boy or a girl?

Why are more boys than girls born every single year?

Is it just down to evolution or male sperm swimming that little bit faster?

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46597323

PurpleChrayne · 24/10/2023 00:07

BHRK · 23/10/2023 21:02

This has made me laugh. No, it’s pretty even really

Why has it made you laugh? Statistically more boys are born.

Mamai90 · 24/10/2023 00:09

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!

I think it's pretty random. Though I have heard of this theory.

For both mine we hit every day six days in a row.

We have two girls.

PerfectYear321 · 24/10/2023 00:10

This thread is full of anecdotes. The truth is more boys are born than girls. Just Google it.

JustAMinutePleass · 24/10/2023 00:14

My fertility consultant said one of the reasons why slightly more boys are born than girls, is because girls are more likely to be miscarried before 12 weeks while boys are more likely to be miscarried later / lost in the first year. Not sure how true it is but he definitely believed in it.

coffeeaddict77 · 24/10/2023 00:19

It's the other way around among people I know. In my and DHs family 8 girls for every boy.

Mamai90 · 24/10/2023 00:23

PerfectYear321 · 24/10/2023 00:10

This thread is full of anecdotes. The truth is more boys are born than girls. Just Google it.

Most people are aware there are more boys born than girls, but the difference is miniscule.

EliflurtleAndTheInfiniteMadness · 24/10/2023 00:27

LindorDoubleChoc · 23/10/2023 20:59

I just googled and in 2016 to 2020 there were 105 males born to every 100 females. So, yes more males are born but the population is predominantly female because females live longer.

There's slightly more males than females born, but the discrepancy reduces over time till there are actually slightly more women then men. I know several people that have girl, boy, boy like I do. Most of DDs friends seem to have sisters, a couple have brothers.

There is a thing called observation bias, it means we don't see the world impartially, we see it through a lens coloured by our own perceptions, beliefs and life experiences. When I was TTC the world seemed suddenly full of babies, it hadn't changed overnight, but my focus had. The other factor is that these rates are population wide. There's no reason you couldn't end up with pockets with a higher or lower percentage of males, but these wouldn't reflect the birth rates of males and females at a population level.

givemeasunnyday · 24/10/2023 00:29

I know several families with six or seven girls, and either one, or no, boys, so it can't be that difficult. The family who live across the street have five girls and one boy.

MidnightMeltdown · 24/10/2023 01:33

Baby girls are stronger and more likely to survive than baby boys, so maybe Mother Nature tries to compensate by producing more boys

ClareBlue · 24/10/2023 01:44

Confirmation bias. You have an idea and you start seeing what confirms that and are less aware of what doesn't. It happens in everything around us and how we see things.
It's not harder to conceive a girl, it's the same effort, which admittedly can be very low to quite impressive effort depending on who is doing the conceiving.

ToWhitToWhoo · 24/10/2023 01:56

Very very slightly. The sex ratio at birth is 105 boys to 100 girls.

ClareBlue · 24/10/2023 01:56

And in any statistical sequence there is going to be events that don't fit the exact distribution. So even 50 years of more boys than girls is a very small event in the sequence of all human births. And births in your community is an even smaller event in all births.
And selective sex abortion is still a significant thing when looking at whole world populations which is exclusively female.

YokoOnosBigHat · 24/10/2023 01:58

As a female with only sisters, who has only daughters and only aunts (on both sides) that would seem to not be the case. Even both sets of my grandparents came from female-only children families or were the only boys in their family of sisters. We do seem to be an extreme example though.

elliejjtiny · 24/10/2023 02:18

It's fairly even I think, although slightly more babies are boys. I think some families are predominantly male or female though. Also I've heard that if you have small age gaps you are more likely to have children of the same sex. Something about your womb being more welcoming to the sperm of the sex of the previous baby. Not sure how true that is but I had 5 children in just under 8 years and they were all boys.

Crikeyalmighty · 24/10/2023 02:22

Strange thing is all the older mums I know have girls- I've got 3 friends over37 who have had first babies this year (non were IVF) they have all had girls.

drspouse · 24/10/2023 10:43

bmrising · 23/10/2023 21:02

@BHRK I know it is but it doesn't seem it 😂

Lots of facts don't seem to be true.
If you brush your teeth you are less likely to get tooth decay.
But you don't get tooth decay the next day after skipping your tooth brushing once or even for a whole week.
Therefore there's no link because you can't see one based on one week's not brushing your teeth.
You're counting up the equivalent of one or two days' tooth brushing.

TwinkleDinkleStarDar · 24/10/2023 10:52

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

That will be why your feeling like that, because you mainly know people with boys

I've just done a quick list and out of 9 families that I know, 26 children between us all, 10 are boys and 16 are girls

Where as DD's class is 22 children and only 8 of them are girls

Notmetoo · 24/10/2023 12:19

blushroses6 · 24/10/2023 00:02

I’m pretty sure it’s random although for most people I know, the dads siblings seem to indicate whether his children are boys or girls/ the order. A couple of men I know with two sisters, have two daughters for example. Or if he has an older brother and sister, he’ll go on to have a son first then a daughter. I’m not saying there is any science behind it but it’s just something i’ve noticed.

Certainly not the case in my family which shows just the opposite.
I think it all just is random. Of course anecdotally it will look as though there is a pattern in some families but it is just chance

Hesma · 24/10/2023 12:21

I have 2 girls, their Dad is one of 2 boys, grandad one of 5 boys… it’s just luck in my opinion!

justplodding · 24/10/2023 12:27

We have 3 DDs. Before our DDs, husbands family was all male, he had 2 brothers, all his cousins were male ( my side of the family very mixed id say)

But now you have said it recently ive noticed alot of friends etc have been having boys.

Comedycook · 24/10/2023 12:32

It feels like there's more boys in the school system...my dds class was 21 boys, 9 girls. Was awful quite honestly