Can you tell gender at 13 weeks?

[temperance17]

Do you have an opinion on the "nub theory"?:

At around 12 weeks all embryos have the same structure for their genitalia, but for boys the angle of this "nub" is a bit different and more obvious. Apparently it is easier to tell if it is a boy. With girls "the nub" is more difficult to interpret.

In my previous pregnancy the sonographer said (correctly) "boy" at the scan. Friends had the same (correct) "boy" prediction. (These friends are scientists, so I became curious about this theory when they didn't write this off as rubbish.)

So far so good. I had a scan yesterday (13+2) and after the medical part was done I did indulge and asked "Can you tell if it is a boy or girl?". This time the sonographers said: "you can't tell so early, because the structure of the genitalia is the same for boy and girl at this stage". So no prediction..

Now......... my question: do you think that they didn't want to predict the gender, because it wasn't obviously a "boy"? Didn't they want to say because the nub wasn't that obvious and might be a girl?

(I am really grateful that everything went well at the scan, and that the baby is well. And although I am slightly biased for a girl, I'll be so happy if the baby is healthy and that is the main thing.)

But now this is out of the way, please indulge me for an afternoon..

(Btw all the scans I mentioned above were done in the same hospital, so I don't think they have a "not tell gender policy".)

My DH correctly identified ours as a boy at 13wks. DH is a vet and used to looking at ultrasounds though.

The sonographer asked if we wanted to know the sex at our 12 week scan at a private clinic, we said no and he turned out to be a boy so you may be right. It must've been obvious for him to offer.

X

The in-gender forums are brilliant on this.

I've heard the nub theory and looked into it myself. If you look at the postings on that forum the difference between boys' an girls' nubs are so blindingly obvious it's amazing!!!

Not sure why they wouldnt hazard a guess this time - maybe she was just more cautious and youve been lucky previously!

I understand (from newspapers) that some clinics won't tell you (and this can be a subtle, non-aggressive way of not telling you) because of selective abortions of female children amongst certain communities.

dedalus - you have a hands-on husband ;-)
babydoula - admiring your resolve! I am sooo curious already.
ahhhhpushit - great idea! just had a look at my scan pics and comparing with what's on the internet. yes, i have spare time today..
londonlivvy - this was in UCL and they have definitely predicted boys in the past.. with my DS and my friends' DS. Maybe they only say if it is a boy??

any more views would be greatly welcome of course

We did a private gender scan at 15 weeks, but they offer them from 14 weeks with a 90% accuracy rate so I guess they should be able to see something at 13 weeks?

Hi temperance,

I can't give you any scientific advice, but I can tell you that our sonographer at UCL did tell us the sex this time - and she said 80% certain its a girl.
Not sure why its 80%. She showed us the 'bits' and it was three straight white lines.

Does this support your theory? Can you bear to wait another 8 weeks?!!!

Alex - I also think they could tell the sex by 13 weeks, but clearly that wasn't their focus :-| But I cannot complain they did a brilliant job!
crochetcircle - haha there goes my theory.. but you're right I was also under the impression that UCL does tell the sex.. clearly having done so previously. Oh, I can tell you why they said 80% though: around week 12 you can tell the gender with an 80% accuracy, at 13 weeks with 95% and so on..

well, my sonographers were definitely focussed on the medical side of this scan (and rightly so).

BTW, Have uploaded scan pics of this baby (including nub) to in-gender though and getting lots of girl guesses already :-)

we had a private nuchal scan at 12+4 and we asked at the end of the scan if it was possible to tell this early on; consultant said 80% certain this one was a boy; will no doubt ask again when we go back next week for 20wk scan

temperence

i think she only told us as we were getting on very well, having talked about the polish term for a male midwife. I didn't get the chance to find out with our last until 20 weeks, so its definitely not routine.

I've never heard of this, I thought it was 20 wks at least.

I know a few people who have been told correctly they are having girls at the 12 week scan, but only at (the same) private clinic. A few people with boys have commented on how "obvious" the male "nub" was at the 12 week scan, a couple of people said it was like someone had drawn a comedy penis on the image!!! One woman apparently asked the sonographer "so what are we looking at here?", and got a rather incredulous look in return....

With DD2, we were told 80% a girl at the 20 week NHS scan. This time they said they thought it was a girl, but can't say for sure, they are good at hiding things etc, at 20 weeks. At my recent 27 week growth scan, she just said "looks like a girl to me".

I was told correctly that i was having a girl at the 12 week scan - private clinic. I was amazed they could tell so early, but apparently the positioning of the nub is really different so it can be very obvious.