What's the earliest you have found out the sex?

[shimmy0]

Hi im just curious has anyone found out the sex earlier than 20 weeks? If so how early? My fiancé and I are planning on asking but I'm only 8 weeks and first scan is tomorrow. I know it's way too early to know at this stage but I'm really curious to know how early you guys have found out and was it on a normal check up or on a special scan like a 3D scan?

I found out at 16 weeks. It was a normal ultrasound but a private one. DH works abroad so we paid for one as he was missing the 20 week one.

For each of her two pregnancies, my friend said that she was told definitively that she was having girls at her 12 week (private) scan, and they did turn out to be daughters. My sonographer (also at a private 12 week scan) said he really wasn't sure, but thought it was slightly more likely to be a girl - this was confirmed at my 20 week scan.

Private scanning companies advertise that they will do a sex scan from 16 weeks, so I guess that is the earliest that they can be fairly certain. Under the NHS system, they will tell you at 20 weeks (although some PCTs apparently have a policy of not telling).

I guess it depends on how developed the baby is and the sophistication of the scanning equipment.

(All scans I have talked about are just standard ultrasound scans, not 3D/4D)

I found out at a private 16 week scan as I felt the 20 week scan just wasn't the time to be asking about it. Also it means I got an extra scan! 16 weeks is the soonest you can do it, but having it done earlier means they're even less certain that they are at 20 weeks.

I'm having a boy btw.

I found out privately at 15 weeks this time, 17 weeks privately with DS and at 18 weeks with DD on the NHS but that was at an emergency scan due to a bleed I think the norm for NHS is the 20 week scan.

12 weeks for me on the NHS.

Birth. Best surprise ever.

I found out at 13.5 weeks after having a CVS (just to be clear, I had the CVS for other reasons not to find out the sex!)

14 weeks, I get scanned at every appt (abroad) he wasn't 100% but it was confirmed at 18 weeks.

15 weeks private scan for first lot of twins and 16 weeks private scan for 2nd lot of twins.

2 sets of twins? Omg I would love this to be twins then I would have the best excuse not to do it again :-) plus I really would love to have my kids so close in age :-)

I think 14 is about the earliest you can get a pretty good guess - in something I read, an experiment (or research) showed that trained sonographers got it right in about 95% of instances at 14 weeks, or something like that, so you have got a good chance from then on - I tried to look at mine as it was apparently at 14+3 (should have been 13!) but she wouldn't stop long enough for me to look, as she said they are not allowed to tell us in case it is wrong.

I had been looking at google pictures of scans at the same stage so knew roughly what to look for, but still wouldn't have felt 100% sure.

I have to wait another 3-4 weeks now to find out at 20 weeks. I am in awe of those of you who wait till birth - I just couldn't imagine not knowing! I keep buying pink things, you know, only when it's something that's a real bargain.

Oh I forgot to say - at about 11-12 weeks, all babies have a little sticky out bit that looks like a willy, (sorry) and if it is a girl it will sort of disappear and become girly bits and if it's a boy it gets slightly more prominent.

So they basically both look the same till around 12 weeks. Sometimes people reckon that you can tell by the angle of the 'protuberance', so if it is a girl it will lie parallel to the spine, and in a boy it'll be more than 30 degrees sticking up. I don't hold with this as it's very hard to see the difference and can easily be wrong.

16+6 for me. Was a private scan.

16+3 for me! private scan :) There's a lot of evidence out there but most people will say wait until 16 weeks. The only definate way (even in late preg mistakes are made) is an amnio/genetic testing which is obviously not worth it just to find out the sex as it comes with risks of its own.

Officially found out at 16+1 with this one, 17+5 with ds. Had a good idea with this one due to a very clear nub shot (angle of the dangle mentioned by a pp) but didn't want to get my hopes up. However - it was right! The nub theory is actually very accurate from 12 weeks up to 13 and a few days. At 11 weeks it's about 75%, at 13, 95% accurate.