Hellobee Boards Topic: If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?

Hellobee Boards Topic: If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you? https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 05 Apr 2026 02:11:51 +0000 brownie on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1698319 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 10:39:01 +0000 brownie 1698319@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Yes! We paid 20K for our first kid and I wanted a girl. We got a boy whom I love and was ecstatic to have. But now I want a girl. Since we have to pay to try again I am going to pay for a girl. At this point it is "family balancing". If we don't get a girl, we will adopt a girl. If I could have as many kids as I wanted and it was free to get preggers I do believe that my views would be different. But since I only have limited options based on financial costs, I will optimize them. Infertility sucks. Adira on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1698302 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 10:34:56 +0000 Adira 1698302@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I would do chance for the first and choose the opposite for the second because I've always wanted one of each! NovBaby1112 on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1698224 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 10:12:22 +0000 NovBaby1112 1698224@https://boards.hellobee.com/ chance! Mrs. Pickle on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1698202 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 10:06:45 +0000 Mrs. Pickle 1698202@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Skadi: I think it's easy to say you can do PGD. In reality it's expensive, it puts your body through a lot, and you risk weakening healthy embryos to the point they can't implant. It makes me sad to think about people discarding healthy embryos because they aren't the right sex. I'm probably a biased because the only way I can conceive and carry a pregnancy to term is through IVF with PGD. If we do do that I will ask my doctor not to tell me the sex of the embryos being implanted. I would still like the surprise. If someone had the means to use PGD to select sex I'm not against it. It's just not for me. LuLu Mom on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1698170 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:58:01 +0000 LuLu Mom 1698170@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I'd leave it up to chance, DH would choose a boy. pui on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1698150 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:53:16 +0000 pui 1698150@https://boards.hellobee.com/ For the first two kids, I think I'd leave it up to chance, but for the third I might consider it. Alivoo01 on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1698145 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:52:23 +0000 Alivoo01 1698145@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Yes and no. Yes because we want two kids, one of each. We have our lil boy, so we'd like our 2nd to be a girl. However, no bc I'm interested to see what I naturally conceive, and it'd be awesome for it to naturally be a girl! There's a jinx that if you work for my aunt, you're going to have a boy and only boys. 25 years in the making, and all staff has produced only boys! wonderstruck on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1698104 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:40:07 +0000 wonderstruck 1698104@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Skadi: Unfortunately that study has since been disproven, there were flaws in the study and once corrected it went back down to close to a 50% chance, but my DH and I actually tried that method along with recommended diet changes, supplements, etc. to try to sway in a certain direction, and it didn't work either time. (And for anyone who thinks that sounds horrible, I will clarify that no one but my DH and I, plus now the bees, know that we tried to sway pink. I would never ever in a million years want my boys to think we weren't absolutely thrilled with them or wanted them to be any different, and once we got to meet them we totally fell in love with our little guy! It just doesn't change my feelings on wanting a daughter someday.) Mrs. Yoyo on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1697736 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 07:26:10 +0000 Mrs. Yoyo 1697736@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @wonderstruck: exactly! Anagram on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1697649 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:32:06 +0000 Anagram 1697649@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We would choose if it were a magic genie that could make it happen for free. And honestly, if sperm selection were only say....$5000 or less, I'm 90% sure my husband would pay it because we want one of each and we already have our girl. Arden on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1697613 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 02:53:36 +0000 Arden 1697613@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Skadi: It's ok I wasn't offended. :P I just didn't think anyone here was really anti-choice in general, just maybe would want to choose personally because they'd rather be surprised. I think if we have a second we might try for a boy, but we certainly wouldn't mind another girl! Snowdrop on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1697605 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 02:25:45 +0000 Snowdrop 1697605@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I said leave it up to xhance but that is because this is my first and i honestly dont care. For my second i probably would choose. Skadi on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1697604 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 02:25:26 +0000 Skadi 1697604@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Arden I'm sorry if I gave any offense--I certainly didn't mean to come off that way! I don't think those who would not choose it are, say, for making it illegal or something like that. And I don't think there's anything wrong with not choosing not to find out! :) I was just trying to express why we chose to do it and lamenting that it's not even very well known that it's possible, among the general public. Let me apologize again. I hope no one feels railroaded by my support for determining gender (and for trying to spread information about it). I completely respect the decision not to. Cherrybee on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1697602 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 02:19:49 +0000 Cherrybee 1697602@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I would love to be able to choose gender..... but for my next baby I really don't know which I want so I picked "leave it up to chance". If DH would agree to three children I would pick genders, though - I'd have another girl next and then a little boy. But as we will probably stop at two, I will let fate decide which of those two children come into my life. lemondrop on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1697598 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 01:59:38 +0000 lemondrop 1697598@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Even with my 2 boys, I'd still leave it up to chance! I'd be thrilled either way with a third. birdofafeather on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1697586 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 01:42:32 +0000 birdofafeather 1697586@https://boards.hellobee.com/ i would not choose. Arden on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you/page/2#post-1697582 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 01:38:44 +0000 Arden 1697582@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Skadi: I think the majority of people who are saying they would leave it up to chance feel that way because of personal preference, not because they are opposed to others choosing. Skadi on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697568 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 01:06:22 +0000 Skadi 1697568@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Because being able to choose the sex doesn't seem as popular, and so far I'm the only person here who has done it, I thought I'd talk a little about our reasons, as well as potential reasons other parents might choose it. Aside from the Billings Method, which I mentioned above, there is a more high tech way to predict gender called PGD: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/08/video.wall.gender.baby/index.html?iref=24hours" rel="nofollow">http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/08/video.wall.gender.baby/index.html?iref=24hours</a> And according to a top scientist who works with it, worldwide there is a 50/50 split between requested boys and girls. I think the fear that, say, boys would be in high demand and not girls if everyone selected their baby's gender is overblown. And let's not forget that if you live in a culture where having a boy is super important to you, there is a good chance you'll just abandon your infant daughter or abort your baby (as in China). Which is the lesser of the two evils, abortion / abandonment, or to give those parents the choice to birth only boys from conception? Though again, this isn't an issue for most countries. And as the scientist in the article I linked to so succinctly put it, "We've been giving women expanded reproductive choices for 50 years. This is another choice." You have the choice whether to find out if what you're having is a girl or boy via ultrasound. You have the choice whether to go through with a pregnancy at all. I think it's equally important in a free society to let women know that they also have a choice when it comes to the genders of their children (not that any method is 100% accurate of course, but Billings' 94% is pretty darn good). I think it's worth noting by the content of the "what if" of this very thread that most people don't know there is a reliable way to do that yourself. I know a family with seven children. Six of them are girls. Six! Do you know what the statistical probability of that is? Let me pull out my calculator. It's 1.6%. Extremely unlikely, but hey, it happened to them. They long to have another boy for their son to play with, but so far, no luck. They want what all of us want, when it comes down to it--family balance. I think family balance is actually a lot more important than we sometimes give it credit for, and considering that doing something as simple as timing intercourse correctly could change that, well...why not? I guess I don't quite understand not wanting to know how sex is naturally selected by the timing of intercourse. The equivalent, it seems to me, would be like saying that it's taking too much into your own hands to find out when you ovulate in order to TTC. Sure, you can get pregnant without that information (usually), but there's nothing wrong with taking advantage of our understanding of biological processes that are in place. For us, we wanted at least one of each gender. We decided to have our eldest child be female for a variety of reasons, but this post is already getting too long so I won't go into them unless someone asks. We'll try for a boy with our second pregnancy. I'm guessing we'll try for a girl again with our third, but we'll have a better idea of that when we get to that point (we eventually want five or six kids). SugarplumsMom on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697533 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 00:31:20 +0000 SugarplumsMom 1697533@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I'd want another girl, but even if I could choose it, I'd feel bad about it. I choose chance. HLK208 on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697531 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 00:28:21 +0000 HLK208 1697531@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Chance! Then again, if I had 2 of the same sex, maybe I'd feel differently. Running Elley on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697513 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 00:09:44 +0000 Running Elley 1697513@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We definitely wouldn't choose. googly-eyes on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697507 Fri, 13 Jun 2014 00:02:38 +0000 googly-eyes 1697507@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Chance! I don't think I actually could make a decision! autumnlove on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697495 Thu, 12 Jun 2014 23:49:32 +0000 autumnlove 1697495@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Chance AprilFool on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697375 Thu, 12 Jun 2014 22:23:09 +0000 AprilFool 1697375@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Chance. My family will be what it is meant to be! MamaMoose on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697347 Thu, 12 Jun 2014 22:08:40 +0000 MamaMoose 1697347@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Absolutely not! tequiero21 on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697341 Thu, 12 Jun 2014 22:04:54 +0000 tequiero21 1697341@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I would leave it up to chance, but as of right now, I voted girl because I have a girl and a boy and am having another boy. If I were to get pregnant again, I'd definitely want another girl. Sapphiresun on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697329 Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:59:25 +0000 Sapphiresun 1697329@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I'd leave it to chance. I'm the eldest of two girls, and DH has an older sister, and we both think our situation was the BEST combination. We already have a girl, so either way, if we have a second, we'll be mimicking one of our families... no way would that argument ever be settled. Skadi on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697314 Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:51:11 +0000 Skadi 1697314@https://boards.hellobee.com/ The Billings Method has been shown to be 94% accurate: <a href="http://www.bioline.org.br/pdf?rh11010" rel="nofollow">http://www.bioline.org.br/pdf?rh11010</a> We used it to predict the sex of our first child. We tried for a girl, and that's what we got! We are going to use it to try for a boy next time. It would be hard for us to be truly surprised at the gender, since I use natural family planning as my method of birth control--knowing what I do about Billings, I'd probably have a good guess about the gender, even if we DTD everyday. I use a little machine that takes a few urine samples a month to notify me of my fertile days and expected ovulation: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Persona-94031-Contraception-Monitor/dp/B001DUJZUC" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Persona-94031-Contraception-Monitor/dp/B001DUJZUC</a> It has a 94% reliability rate for those who used condoms during "the red days," but we totally abstain during the red days so it's probably better than that. We've been using it for eight years with no accidents. MapleMoose on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697272 Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:37:46 +0000 MapleMoose 1697272@https://boards.hellobee.com/ For the 2nd one, yes. I would choose the opposite of what came first. Corduroy on "If you could choose your LO's sex before getting pregnant, would you?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-could-choose-your-los-sex-before-getting-pregnant-would-you#post-1697242 Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:29:36 +0000 Corduroy 1697242@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I think it's best left to chance but if the possibility existed I would choose boy for #2 (we have a girl).