Can you REALLY influence whether you conceive a boy or a girl?

[ilovemyoboe]

My husband and I are trying for our second child, having already had a lovely little boy, now 2.5yrs old. Have been joking with my husband that the sex of number two is all down to him. Am curious though - is there really anything you can do (beyond medical intervention) to influence the sex of your child? There's lots of old wives tales, but is there any truth in any of them?

I think some techniques could alter your odds by a couple of percent but overall I don't believe they work.

i think if you know the day of ovulation you can time it to increase your chances of girl/boy.
there was a program on channel 4 a while ago - 8 boys and wanting a girl. seeing a mother heartbroken to find out she was having another boy at 20week scan was a bit sickening.

I really only wanted a third child if it could be a girl. I had 2 boys & had post natal depression after my 2nd. I found the boys hard work together although now i know they're just normal boys.

My friend had 2 boys then a girl & her friend had helped her. Everyone they advised, apart from one woman who had sex too close to ov'ing, had a girl. My friend sent me a testing kit, not sure what it's called but basically to test when it's safe & unsafe to have sex without contraception. It gave me more of an idea when I was ov'ing too. Then my friend just said to have a lot of sex & to stop 3-4 days before ov'ing. I never thought I'd get pregnant that way as previously had sex on ov'ing thinking it was the only time to fall. It makes sense to me why I had 2 boys. You probably know the theory about the male sperm swimming faster to get to the egg 1st. So if you're ov'ing the male one gets there 1st & you have a boy.
Having lots of sex is supposed to get rid of most of the male sperm, then stopping sex 3 days before the male sperm will die because they swim faster so they get there before the egg has been released. The female sperm however can live for about 72 hrs & are slower swimmers, so by the time they get there the egg has been released & you could get a girl.

On the way to my 20wk scan I kept telling myself it would be a boy. It was, & is a girl & we all love her

That's the only thing we did thou. I know there's lots of other things like changing your diet, getting your man to wear boxers etc.

One other thing which actually is very important to me. I am a Christian & prayed about my deep desire to have a girl. Previously my periods had been irregular but after praying & having someone pray for me, I noticed that I was spot on cd34 every mth for 5 mths. God may have just given me my little girl. But to me it's like He knew I needed to have that bit of input too, I couldn't take the risk so followed my friends advice. To me it makes sense.

Good luck, but like everyone will say, you need to be happy whatever, and I'm sure you will be xxx

I remember reading somewhere about 2 years ago that there was a link between calorific intake of the mother at conception and sex of the baby. And in the same study, whether the mothers ate breakfast cereal also had an impact (honestly I'm not imagining this ). What is really unhelpful, however, is I cannot remember which way round the impact was! Try googling as I'm sure it was from a reputable scientic journal (possibly even peer-reviewed?)

Disclaimer: I have no idea if it works or not but There's some research into it, called the Shettles method. Think Dr Shettles wrote a book. Worth googling.

Thanks everyone. Hadn't heard of Shettles so looked it up .. and discovered that we'd done everything wrong for a boy this month, so hoping I'm not pregnant this month! (We actually want another boy, although most people seem to have assumed we wanted a girl.)

leaky - I'm a Christian too. Have been praying about it, and trying to trust! Obviously first prayer is for healthy baby,or even for one at all!

(Sorry got to dish up dinner so will post more later)

Hoping you're not pregnant this month in case it's not the flavour you want? I'm sorry to butt in but that is an incredibly crass thing to say...I'd suggest you take a look at most of the other posts on this board which might help put things in perspective for you. I'm sorry if it sounds mean but it does make me very cross...if you really hope you're not pg in case it's not the sex you want I think you need to consider whether you ought to have another baby. Fingers crossed the poor thing doesn't wear glasses or have a big nose or anything else that might not quite fit your requirements. Personally I, just like a lot people on this board, would just like my husband and I to have a baby at all and not spend our lives on what is the most painful rollercoaster you can begin to imagine. The idea of going to the trouble of only wanting one sort is incomprehensible to me.

Right, I'll bugger off now.

Tbh I was a bit it's not too scientific time wise anyway.
ttc isn't guaranteed for a lot of us.....see my 'oh help' thread for my background.

I shall steal a phrase from another mumsnetter, having a baby is not like ordering something from an Argos catalogue for goodness sake!

Save your prayers for something really important.

I think its dodgy ground emotionally like another poster said you never want to be 'that' person at a scan, I would feel so guilty.

I'v decided that for my next one I want to be surprised, to avoid this so ill be just happy to have a healthy baby.

I saw that TV show.

TBH I could understand how both women might have felt that way but it was quite horrible too. I hated the bit where the women getting that special fertility treatment told the clinic to throw away all the boy embryos ...

really? throw away the embryo's god.

I but a thread about wanting a girl on AIBU rather than here, its not nice if your like on your 3rd round of IVF to see someone whinging about child number 2,3,4 etc.

However someone yearning for a certain gender is completely entitled to those feelings.

Thank you Rollon2012 someone yearning for a certain gender is completely entitled to those feelings that was me exactly. I had post natal depression after my 2nd son & thought I really couldn't cope with another child at all. When I changed my mind a few yrs later I was scared of having another boy, simply because of how my two fought. Also I wonder if the fact that I was sexually abused as a child made my yearning for a little girl stronger, as I wanted to love & protect her as I should have been. ( I was loved & my parents were unaware but that's another story)

Also farfallarocks Save your prayers for something really important? For those of us who pray will know that God cares about absolutely everything in our lives & wants us to take everything to him in prayer

Just...

I had 2 DSs and when we started trying for another I knew deep down that I really wanted to have a daughter.

I didn't air these feelings but what I did do was to have sex at certain times in my cycle. I also binned all of DH's y-fronts!

I also used to do strange things like blink twice when I saw a magpie....very odd.

A pregnant friend who had 3 boys was told by a consultant that she had a 10% chance of conceiving a girl so I didn't hold out much hope!

We found out at the 20 week scan that we were expecting a girl so maybe there is something in it or maybe its just 50/50 every time.

With highlove on this one - I've being TTC a baby for 18 months now and couldn't care less whether it's a boy or a girl, I just would love to be a mummy.

Post what you like, wherever you like but don't expect to not get flamed down on a conception board by women just desperate to be pregnant.

Silly billy.

But leaky you'll note rollon also said this isn't the right place to post it. As impatientwino rightly points out, you certainly can't do so and expect not to get flamed. I had crossed words with my DH this morning - i wouldnt stick that on a forum full of people who've just lost their partners. I dont know how else to get it across - I've had just about the worst week of my life because of a disastrous cycle of fertility treatment and there were times this week when I can honestly say that, just for a minute or so, I felt like I couldn't face going on. So I hope you can understand how it feels when you read that people who have already been blessed with one, two, more hope they're not pg if it's not the right flavour. Crass in the extreme. Like I said, read a few posts on this board and get some perspective.

I to have read about the calorie intake think it was less for a boy and more for a girl if it's that way round then it worked for me

Highlove, I'm sorry you're having such a hard time but I think your analogy would only work if this was a forum dedicated to infertility. Even the 'Conception' board isn't just limited to ttc but about all sorts of things relating to conception. I thought there was a MN area dedicated to infertility now. Obviously, posting such a thread there would be inappropriate but not here.

As for the OP, I have two of each but definitely conceived my girls prior to ovulation and my boys on OV day and OV day+1. I have always been very aware of my cycle with stitch like pains etc plus DH is out of the country a lot so I tend to know exactly when I conceive. Good luck!

Just read the posts about others ttc and finding this insensitive and posted before I saw them should have read entire thread before posting

Hi everyone,

I'm so sorry. Reading posts, I've obviously touched a lot of nerves and upset people and that really wasn't my intention. Yes, I should have read around and checked what was in this area before posting here. I didn't, and that was really stupid of me.

Please accept my apologies for being so insensitive.

Perhaps we can close this thread now so other people are less likely to see it and not be upset too.