Do higher rated embryos correlate with being boys?

[wanttobegirlmum]

I live in a country where it’s not possible to find out the gender of the embryos before transferring, like it’s possible in the USA for example. For personal reasons it is likely that the next successful embryo transfer (if we are lucky enough to have a successful one) would be our last baby. I really strongly have a preference towards a girl but our clinic doesn’t let us select embryos. This time I asked to go for a lower graded one, we went for the top graded one anyway because they missed / ignored my request, maybe didn’t pass it onto the embryologist who was defrosting, I don’t know. The next embryo we would go for a 5AA day 6, although they say that it was ready for PGTA only at day 6 but was a blastocyst by day 5. That’s most likely a boy, right? The next one down is 4AA day 6. I’d rather go for our 5BA or even 4BB as I’ve heard more chance of girls with lower grades. Is there any way I can insist on going for a lower graded one? In your experience were your higher rated embryos boys?

Are you sure the clinic will let you choose? In the UK I believe you can't- they are required to transfer the embryo most likely to result in a pregnancy.

The correlation, if there is one, must be so weak its hardly worth thinking about, surely?

(Oh, and anecdata, but the only one of mine I know about was 3cc, iirc, and it would have been male, but was also aneuploid. No idea how that factors in!)

My highest graded was/ is a girl. Not sure if that’s uncommon or not, I doubt there’s much in it. Anecdotally of the ivf babies in know there’s more girls than boys and they all must’ve been the best graded to be chosen.

Not sure if there is much science behind it at all but my highest graded turned out to be my girl and lowest was my boy, two embryos in between were a chemical and a fail

My highest embryo turned out to be a girl. I’m not sure I’d be risking a failed transfer by using a lower graded embryo and have the heartbreak, to then have do it again but each to their own.

There’s no requirement in the UK to transfer the highest graded embryo first - we preferred to transfer them in the order they were created and that was fine with our clinic (we did PGTA). We weren’t bothered about the sex of the embryos so I didn’t really look into it but I believe there was one study that found ~70% of 5AA/ 6AA embryos tested were male.

I have 2 girls from aa embryos and have had 1 boy from aa embryo and have some aa embryos not survive thaw. Its just the luck of the draw to do with chromosomes not exactly their quality.

Highest rated embryos have about a 70% chance of being male. However, this doesn't work the same way in the inverse. Lower rated embryos have the highest chance of being female, but this is only 58% - not that far off 50/50 (and of course the lower ones have a lower chance of working out so your chance of a baby is lower overall).

Before you speak to your clinic, I think you need to examine how strong your preference is. If you'd be really disappointed with a boy, even a low grade transfer doesn't give you that good odds of a girl, and you'd be best not having another or going abroad.

Oh, ok, must be my clinic. I notice the HFEA says that clinics 'will' choose the best-rated embryo, not that they are required by law to do so.

(Sorry to bring this up as it's sad - though the whole thing is, of course - but miscarriage rates are also higher for female foetuses, whereas baby boys are more likely to suffer stillbirth and neonatal death. We don't really know why, AFAIK.)

please just hope for a healthy baby. I’m not sure if this is your first round or not but honestly getting success with ivf is lucky in itself

Also posting this on the infertility board and stating how this child will be your last baby is insensitive. There’s people on this board who are struggling to have one baby.

You've posted this on AIBU and I think you are being unreasonable. To actively chose a lower grade embryo when you say this is your last pregnancy doesn't make sense. Wouldn't you want to use the highest grade and do whatever you csn to achieve a healthy baby whatever the sex?

My poor grade cc was a boy

You're posting on an infertility board where people are struggling to ever conceive one child. Many people here have tried IVF numerous times and never had a pregnancy, having gone through failed transfers and miscarriages. Some people will have never got to the stage of getting a healthy embryo.

The fact you'd willingly put yourself at a higher chance of a failed transfer or miscarriage by choosing a lower graded embryo just to select sex is a little obscene.

Any of your embryos could be boys or girls. The highest rated one could be a girl for all you know. I let the clinic decide as I wanted the most chance of success..if you feel that strongly try and get those thoughts out of your head because if you are successful you do not have a choice what sex the child is. As someone said previously just hope for a healthy child. That’s all I was hoping for after my miscarriage at 11 weeks in a previous pregnancy.