Can I choose the embryo we transfer? Can my reason be suspected gender?

[mamariama]

As I’m sure you know in the UK gender selection is illegal so, although my embryos are PGTA tested, I don’t know the gender (it’s not reported). I would like a girl.

I’d like to request my second best embryo is transferred next (day 6 4AA) in favour of my best embryo (day 6 5AA) because I’ve read that there is a fair amount of research that quicker developing embryos are substantially more likely to be boys, so it stands to reason that my 5AA is more likely to be a boy than my 4AA given they are both day 6. Of course there’s a chance they’re both girls, both boys etc but I’m working on the probabilities.

Would it be possible to request which embryo we transfer next? And if asked for a reason will the “allow” me when my reason is simply suspected gender? Or could mentioning gender mean that they automatically have to decline? I can’t think of any other solid reason why out of 8 euploids I’d choose my second best one, given that previously my very best one day 5 5AA stuck.

Our clinic doesn't let us choose the embryos we transfer. They thaw on the day the one they think will be successful and survive thaw.

Agree with the above, I think the clinic will want to transfer the very best. Partly for their stats, partly to give you the best option and also if it didn’t workout, to avoid complaints from you (not saying you would) that they didn’t use the best option.

FWIW, I’ve seen a thread asking for people’s experiences with this and it was quite unanimous that all our results were not in line with the theory. DD was our best day 5 blast. Good luck either way.

Agree with there being no science behind it. I have had 4 babies via ivf (one angel baby) all their embryos grades were roughly the same, but they were all the best to transfer at the time and we got 2 boys and 2 girls so for us it was 50/50.

They would really heavily roll their eyes as there is not substantial research at all and the difference between expansion grade 4 and 5 is negligible given both day 6s - could be just a few hours. What you're suggesting doesn't "stand to reason" even slightly. That said, they may indulge you precisely because it wouldn't be gender selection whatsoever and they're essentially the same grade.

My daughter was our top blast so the theory doesn’t necessarily hold up. There’s no way of knowing, you could be bypassing a 5AA girl for a 4AA boy 🤷‍♀️I think you just have to roll the dice and hope for the best.

🙄

My clinic were fine with me choosing a PGT-A tested embryo that wasn’t the highest graded (in my case both my first and second rounds only yielded one euploid embryo each so I wanted to transfer them in the order they were created). I just said which we wanted and it was never a problem, I did tell the consultant why but the embryologist didn’t ask.

I’m not a medical professional and it’s a few years since I looked into it but it seemed to me that there was research evidence to suggest that the grading alone of euploid embryos was much less predictive of if they would lead to a live birth than untested embryos so I wasn’t worried about reducing the chances of it working by choosing a lower graded embryo. I didn’t really look into the chances of the embryos being a particular sex as I wasn’t bothered but I think the research suggested that conventional IVF led to slightly more boys being born and ICSI to slightly more girls, I also read one study that found over 70% of 6AA and 5AA embryos they tested were male.

My daughter was 5BB and son was 4BB so the girl was the better embryo.

They are very unlikely to let you, but you can ask if you want (nothing to lose).

In countries where PGT is allowed only for medical reasons, I doubt clinics will reveal the baby’s gender. However, I’ve seen a few posts in the IVFAbroad FB group where people mentioned that doctors did share the gender—but in a more indirect way.