Is it Possible to Determine the Sex of a Baby?

Many expectant parents or those looking to conceive are wondering if it's possible to determine the sex of your baby; for whatever reason they prefer one gender over another and want to conceive a boy or a girl. Their reasons for this are personal and should be respected of course, but what can parents do if they're trying to determine the sex of a baby before conception?

For one thing, never think that you're going to get a guarantee regarding the gender of a baby no matter what you do. Conception is a process that happens at a microscopic level and of course there are typically millions of sperm that are present during intercourse, so any one of those can reach an egg in order to fertilize it. The sperm itself is what will determine the sex of a baby; this has nothing to do with the mother, her age, the month of conception, the amount of potassium in the woman's system, and so on. Sperm contain one chromosome factor each; a Y chromosome will create a boy whereas an X chromosome will create a girl.

When you realize that the gender of the baby is determined simply by which sperm reaches the egg first, you realize how difficult it is to determine the sex of a baby before conception. Those sperm are so tiny that you just can't do anything to control which one reaches an egg first! They're not like pet dogs where you can call one back and send one ahead and the mother certainly has no knowledge of which one is faster than the others.

So how do parents determine the sex of a baby? The only real differences that seem to be present in the sperm is that the Y chromosome sperm travel faster but die quicker than the X chromosome sperm. To conceive a girl you may want to create an environment that is hostile to the sperm so that the weaker boy sperm can die away, and to conceive a boy you may want to have deeper penetration during sex so that the faster sperm can reach the egg quicker. Even then, to really determine the sex of a baby you should wait until you're actually pregnant and have an ultrasound from your doctor so that you know for sure, as many parents have been surprised by their baby's gender!