At Home Gender Selection Methods

For many couples, high-tech gender selection is simply not an option for a number reasons — from financial, moral, ethical, logistical to legal reasons. (In some countries, sex selection via PGD and through sorting methods is illegal.) But many couples who yearn for a baby boy or a girl, use at-home methods. Some call it “swaying” for gender—they know there are no guarantees with these home remedies, but they hope that they might be able to “sway for a girl or boy.”  Most have little or no scientific support.  In fact, they’re often called “old wives’ tales,” myths, folklore. 

But many women swear by these methods, which work 50% of the time: equal to Mother Nature’s chances of producing either gender.  It’s hard for some couples to determine if outcomes result from a particular method used, or a combination of methods, or if it was pure chance. Below is a list of such methods popular today, which we stress, have no scientific proof of effectiveness.

• Gender selection diets…Bananas are popular
• Nutritional/herbal supplements
• Varying depth of penetration and male/female positioning during sexual intercourse
• Timing intercourse to certain days before or during ovulation
• The Turkey Baster method and douching to change pH levels
• Taking cold medicine or cough syrup to increase cervical fluids
• Consulting an ancient Chinese gender selection lunar calendar
• Wearing boxers or briefs
• Drinking caffeine before intercourse

Buyer Beware

In addition to lacking scientific efficacy and evidence, at-home sex selection methods are often a waste of money. With the increasing popularity of finding remedies on the Internet, a growing number of dubious products are offered to consumers who have little time, expertise or patience to adequately research them. Some are desperate to have a boy or girl baby, they’re willing to pay for a sex selection kit, minerals or supplements, or an e-book—that offers the chance of that dream girl or boy.

Buyer beware! Although sex-selection products may seem affordable compared to the high-cost reproductive technologies of fertility clinics, there’s no proof of their efficacy ― no evidence of scientific research behind them, and no regulation of the companies, organizations, or individuals who sell them. Most fertility doctors are skeptical of any of the so-called gender selection methods sold on the Internet.