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Conception

When's the best time to get pregnant? Use our interactive ovulation calculator to work out when you're most fertile and most likely to conceive.

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Original poster

Do sex selection (natural ) techniques work?

17 replies

prizeelliott · 04/12/2011 22:07

Have 3 gourgeous DD's. Wouldn't change them for the world and realise I am truly blessed. However I have always longed for a DS. I am wondering if anyone has experience of using natural sex selection techniques. Have bought the book Choose the Sex of Your Baby: the Natural Way by H Phillips and Chesterman-Phillips (actually brought it for my DH for x mas! Rock on!), before I read it was wondering if anyone has used it? Any feedback? I wonder what the chances of concieving a boy is after 3 girls? Anyone else long for a son or is it just me!!!!! (Perhaps it's the unknown...no brother, male cousen.....)

OP posts:

iloveberries · 05/12/2011 08:11

hi prize - this is a hot topic amongst my friends (most of whom are PG with number 2) and the consensus seems to be that the timing method does work.

I have a DS conceived bang on ovulation. (we weren't trying for a particular gender, but i know when he was conceived and it supports the theory.) Most of the experiences of my friends who know when their DSs and DDs were conceived would support the timing method. Do you know when your DDs were conceived.

Here's a link which might be interesting for you:
www.in-gender.com/XYU/Odds/Gender_Odds.aspx

We are TTC number 2 now (i'll take either gender very gratefully!) and I am really interested in this topic so will follow the thread with interest. I hope you don't get flamed for what I believe is a natural feeling.

Good Luck!

Huffpot · 05/12/2011 08:37

I have 2 DS's which I'm delighted with but we'd love a girl so shall watch with interest!
My friend swears by it - she had a little boy then did the timing thing and voilà a little girl!

IslandIsla · 05/12/2011 08:42

I think the bottom line is, maybe you can tip the balance in favour of a boy by using these techniques but you will never be able to guarantee either sex. So, if you want another baby, would you still be happy if it was another girl?

Original poster

prizeelliott · 05/12/2011 23:19

Thank you ladies for not judging me, as I am well aware how lucky I amto have3 healthy children. I am not sure about having another, as I fear I would be a little dissapointed sad can't find the right word (how coul dyou feel that way at the birth of a baby?) if it wasn't a litle boy. Perhaps I should just remain grateful for my lot, and enjoy the little boys born to my friend. I just have this nagging feeling that my little family is not complete. Does anyone share this feeling.
Thank you xxxxx

OP posts:

LetmethinkNO · 05/12/2011 23:43

About 50% of the time.

babyonbord · 06/12/2011 13:20

i have 2 boys and we have decided that there will be a third baby in a couple of years and i swing between wanting 3 little boys and wanting a little girl but to be honest i don't think i would be upset either way.But i know where you're coming from, if i'd had 2 girls i think i'd be desperate for a little boy. With the two children i have i wanted little boys and felt a little upset when i went to a scan for my first one and was initally told i was having a little girl.

iloveberries · 06/12/2011 13:20

hi prize,
i have that feeling of my family not being complete but mainly because i have 1DC (a DS) at the moment and i always saw myself with 2 or 3 DCs (and weirdly never saw myself with boys!!). As i said we are TTC at the moment so i hope i will be blessed with another.

I am so pleased that no-one bowled in here and judged you as Mumsnet can be a bit like that especially where things like this are concerned.

I know you're not the only one with single gender children who feels like this. I have a friend who was desperate for a DD and we begged her to find out at her scan so if it was a 2nd DS she would have time to get used to the idea and to give the baby the welcome he deserved. She did find out and it is another DS and she is disappointed. not that she isn't grateful for a healthy baby but she just says she always wanted a DD. I guess maybe falling PG very quickly and hafving healthy pgnancies both times she hasn't quite appreciated her luck!

I would also LOVE a DD but really i just want another child so whilst i have read up about how to "try" for a DD i am not going to try as it makes it harder to conceive at all (and it's not proving very easy at the moment)!

I do understand not feeling your family is complete though. Your story reminds me of Jamie Oliver who chilled his bits down to try and let the boy sperm grow! (and he got his DS eventually!) I have always thought my family would feel incomplete without a DD but having not fallen PG yet it just brings home how it is another child I want..... but I still can't imagine my life without a DD!

(For what it's worth) I would only 'try' the timing method if i wanted another child regardless of sex..... but it sounds like you are in the same place.

Do you know when your DDs were conceived?

Don't feel guilty for having these feelings. My lovely mum always says "you can't control your feelings, but you can control what you do with them", and that's just what you're doing. :)

babyonbord · 06/12/2011 16:22

its one of those things that you can stress about and worry about and feel dissapointed when you don't get what you want, but the minute you hold your baby in your arms all of that goes away because well you have a baby and at that moment in time it could have 3 heads and it wouldn't make any difference, so what sex it is stops mattering until you decide you want another one lol

chipmonkey · 06/12/2011 17:12

Timing does NOT work. There is always a 50:50 chance of getting the "right" gender so I think 50% of the people who try the timing method go on about how good it is, the other 50% stay quiet so as not to appear disappointed with their lovely baby.
I had dd after four boys. The only think that I did differently was cut out salt and eat lots of yoghurt and strawberries/raspberries. But I was still expecting her to be a boy.
Sadly she died aged 7 weeks. I envy anyone who has a live healthy baby of either gender.

Original poster

prizeelliott · 06/12/2011 20:35

Thank you for your lovely messages. Iloveberries, I wish you every luck with getting cheggers again. I think your right, and I like your friend only had to look at my husband and fell pregnant. I things are a bit harder, the sex is entirely irrelevant! Fingers crossed the new year will bring a new baby.
I am so sorry chipmonkey...and I think on this note, I should just shut up and get on with it. Cannot begin to imagine how heart-breaking it would be to loose a child. Am making an early new years resolution to get over it...embrace all the bloody pink, and thank my lucky stars daily.

I am relatively new to Mumsnet, but have seen a few threads where people are slatted for sharing an opinion (which is wrong surely!), I thank you all for not doing that here!!!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

OP posts:

Original poster

prizeelliott · 06/12/2011 20:36

P.S why doesn't this thing have a like button!! xx

OP posts:

iloveberries · 06/12/2011 20:43

chipmonkey - so sorry to hear of your loss. I hope you are finding strength in your boys.

It's a good point you make about only the 50% of people who the timing method 'worked' for admitting they used it. I'd never thought of that.

prize thanks for the luck. I hope i will be blessed with another baby in 2012.

Don't feel bad for having the feelings you have though, and as you say, embrace the pink! I have learnt to embrace tractors in a way i never thought was possible!!!!

Original poster

prizeelliott · 06/12/2011 21:31

Wish I could 'like' them alll.... thank you ladies xxxx

OP posts:

chipmonkey · 06/12/2011 23:43

BTW, prizeelliott I really didn't mean to sound lecture-y. It was dreadful losing dd, but as someone who really kept going till I got a girl, I am certainly not going to judge anyone for having a preference one way or the other. I think we all have an "ideal" family in our heads, some people want a mix, some people want all girls or all boys. But crucially, I really don't feel any more "hard done by" for having lost dd than if it had been one of the boys. I know I would have felt as bad, had I lost one of them, possibly worse having known them longer. But it was fabulous having her even though it was for far too short a time.
The website in-gender.com does give diet tips etc for "swaying" for a boy or a girl. I do think the diet might work better than timing but the boy diet was very salty so not very healthy. The girl one was bland beyond belief so I didn't stick totally to it, just leaned towards it when shopping for food. Either way, none of these methods work 100% except PGD which is very invasive and expensive and not legal in very many places for gender selection.
Either way, you will love your baby regardless of gender, I wouldn't be without any of my boys and I am so glad to have them after losing dd even though ds4 spilt blue paint on the laptop today and I would happily have given him to the postman.

iloveberries · 07/12/2011 09:48

chipmonkey :)

Original poster

prizeelliott · 08/12/2011 12:33

Love it!! Thanks chipmonkey...I didn't think you sopunded at all lecture-y at all!!!!. Think we just have to go with the cards dealt in the end don't we!
I feel the same about my girls.... if I think I wish I'd had a boy, can't imagine the girls not being there! Not like I'd swap one to have the fairy tale Boy folowed by girl!!! My mum would probably kill me if I had another regardless of sex!!! We shall see what the future brings!

Thanks for sharing your story...hope to see you on here again! xxx

OP posts:

Stuntnun · 10/12/2011 15:44

Timing methods can increase your chance of conceiving one gender but they only tip the balance slightly from your overall chance of 51% boy / 49% girl and they can result in taking longer to conceive, particularly if you're trying for a girl.

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