Hopefully a yes or no question..

[ohthegoats]

... if you have IVF, can you do a gender preference? Could you do a gender preference if you were massively wealthy and potentially a bit immoral? Or is it just a straight out no?

I'm pretty sure the answer is no...

The answer is no, not legally. You can only do gender selection legally if you know you have a genetic condition that affects one gender and not the other.

Not in the UK. Yes if you go abroad

Uk - no

Abroad (in some parts of the world) - yes

no - not in the UK. I've never quite understood how this works for the majority of people anyway? I've had three rounds of ivf and the quantity of embryos is never enough to make any sort of selection other than on a quality basis. most people don't get lots and lots of embryos to choose from?

I remember a programme on channel 4 a few years ago, I think it was called '8 boys and wanting a girl'? One of the mums on that went to Spain, I think, for gender selection and had twin girls.

i watched a programme once about gender selection ivf, couple "really really wanted a girl" or some other such bollocks. it wasn't in the UK though, I think the couple were American but not sure where they had their treatment.

I've had IVF for both my pregnancies, and poster above is right - you may only get left with 1/2 viable embryos anyway, so at the end you often have very little 'choice' left anyway.

No. I think ethically it is very wrong too.

But I hear that in places like India they can over-stimulate you and produce lots of embryos in each round of IVF, and they also tend to implant more embryos to give you a higher rate of success. NB this isn't done in the UK because of the health risks - women get health complications from over-stimulation with hormones, and also to avoid the horrific multiple pregnancies (triplets or more) that they sometimes get there.

So theoretically it's possible to get so many embryos that you find a couple with high quality and of the gender you want. But dangerous and unethical. I'm thankful that boys and girls are equally treasured in our society, so there's no real pressure for sex selection either way. Be thankful with what you get :)