Is babys gender hereditary?

[Msd2416]

Anyone know if this is a thing? Im convinced its not and its just 50/50 but my hubby says it is?

I think it could be as my DP's family are mainly men, that is his brothers, cousins etc. are mostly men. I think I am having a boy because of this BUT I have been doing some reading on it recently and it is to do with the sperm. Male sperm are stronger swimmers (so get to the egg faster) but female sperm are alive for longer. One theory states that if you have sex leading up to ov, most likely you will have a girl. If you have sex day of ov, most likely you will have a boy.

Either way I hope to know in a few weeks!!

BUT I have been doing some reading on it recently and it is to do with the sperm. Male sperm are stronger swimmers (so get to the egg faster) but female sperm are alive for longer. One theory states that if you have sex leading up to ov, most likely you will have a girl. If you have sex day of ov, most likely you will have a boy

God, I wish this one would die. Again, that is not true. That was Shettles' idea, and he was wrong. He saw two types of sperm which did function differently and more or less randomly decided that they were X("girl") and Y ("boy") sperm. They were not. His bullshit has been amazingly culturally pervasive, but it remains bullshit.

Whatever you do, on a population level you end up with very close to a 50:50 ratio of births, because most of these factors make only an infitesimal difference.

I am half convinced this is a thing! In my family everyone is a brother first then a sister dating back several generations. My dad has a younger sister, my grandpa had a younger sister, my boy cousin has a younger sister. DP was convinced ours would be a girl cause he has a lot of girls in his family, but I was adament, nope! We have a boy first then a girl... Well DC defied his family odds and was a boy :) of course it's all just a massive coincidence, sex is determined by which sperm gets there first.

I personally think its 50/50 and pure luck for the vast majority of us

Can I just point out that the only fighter pilot I know (retired now) is the father of 2 sons & 1 daughter!

I think the 'swaying' methods are, if not total bollocks, then very unlikely to do much about what sex you have. I have recently really had my eyes opened to the extent to which some people are desperate for a particular sex (through joining some different conception / pregnancy /baby groups on Facebook) and will change their diet, try the shettles method, different sex positions, vitamins...I didn't realise there's a whole following behind it! Lots of them end up disappointed and it seems the only ones who do get the sex they want are the ones who just keep going (e.g. 'sixth baby and finally got my little princess!').

I looked after a few pilots children as I worked in a nursery near an RAF airbase. There was just as many boys as girls 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sperm are either x or y, not xx or xy. Eggs are all x. Girl babies are xx and boy babies xy.

Also sex and gender are the same in nearly all cases so I can't see why people get so het up about this. Do people who insist on referring to the sex of their child also identify it as male or female and refuse to give it a gender label of boy or girl?

This is interesting, I've got two boys and am pregnant again. I've wondered if my two boys make it more or less likely that I'll have another?

This is such an interesting question. Bearing in mind the general 50/50 split of male/female. I had a friend desperate for a daughter after 4 sons. Went in for another one and, oh boy, another boy.

I've also read that it's the sperm that dictates the sex. My siblings is a 50/50 split. Yet within their kids, it's overwhelmingly boys.

There's always slightly more boys born than girls.

Hereditary would have to be on the male side then? Like DH is one of 4 just boys, his Dad is one of 5 just boys, and his Grandad is one of 4 just boys. So looks like boys is dominate in his family , infact our only child is a boy. His oldest brother has just one boy. But then his younger brother has gone on to have 3 girls and the legacy has been broken.

@mistermagpie I can't find anything online, but I'm sure my second cousin quoted some study that odds of having a girl are seen as lower after 2 boys. She went on to have a 3rd boy. She said she won't try again.

Where I live there are many people with 3 children. Contrast to my scone cousin they seem to go Boy, Boy, Girl or Girl, Girl, Boy. I guess it could be they all give it third try for the opposite sex? I'm stopping at 2 even if it turns out to be another boy Congrats !

Just to be clear, I wasn't trying for a girl but I just wondered if it would be affected by my having two boys. I would be delighted with either sex!

I also know a lot of people with three children and none of them have all three the same sex. DH is one of four - two boys and two girls - so it does seem random to me.

My DH has a mix of girls and boys for siblings and cousins - a fairly equal split.

I have sisters. My cousins are all girls. My mother only had sisters. My cousins have all had girls and I have three girls.

The only boys related to me in a couple of generations are my father and my two grandfathers.

There are only two sexes
And only two genders.

A baby's sex is determined by the sperm which reaches and fertilises the egg first. A man's sperm has either XY or XX. if XY meets the egg first, it will be a boy. If it is XX it is a girl. The sex of the foetus is determined at conception by the sperm

Close but not quite. The sperm have one sex chromosome - X or Y. The egg always has X. The two combined give an embryo that is either XX or XY (or occasionally a trisomy causing a form of intersex).

There are various theories. Supposedly a man with brothers will inherit his parents’ tendency to produce sons, equally a man with sisters will produce daughters. Apparently taller people are more likely to produce sons and older people are more likely to produce daughters. I’ve also heard that feminine men or masculine women are more likely to produce sons, and masculine men tend to produce more daughters. There are such a lot of factors I think it’s impossible to know how they all interact.

MyDcAreMarvel define gender then, as different to sex.

I think you can probably find examples that go either way. I knew a family with five daughters, no sons. All their grandchildren (about 8 or 9 of them now) are boys!

MyDcAreMarvel define gender then, as different to sex.
I don’t really see a difference tbh.

MyDcAreMarvel sex defines the physical sexual category (for want of a better word) of an individual; gender is an umbrella term that covers the social expression, identity and stereotypical social and cultural differences & behaviours most commonly associated with those sexes.

Quite a lot of people get quite het up about it.
We can say the word 'sex' - it's not rude.

What do people mean when they say they've read that it is sperm that determines sex?

Maybe they’ve read a GCSE biology book?

Honestly you couldn't make it up.

Or then again ...

Females have XX sex chromosomes, males have XY.
Babies get one chromosome from each parent, so the chromosome they get from the sperm determines whether they will be male or female, as they can only get the Y chromosome from the sperm.

What do people mean when they say they've read that it is sperm that determines sex?

That Henry VIII really shouldn’t have chopped Anne Boleyn’s head off......