Pregnancy & Baby Index: Fertility and Conception: Research: Boy or girl? The mysteries of gender selection
Boy or girl? The mysteries of gender selection
Mark Kan, MD
Parents have been trying to influence the sex of their baby at conception for as long as people have been trying to make babies. While there have been many myths regarding gender selection, there has also been legitimate scientific research in this field. Read on to learn more!
What determines the gender of a baby?
The sex of a baby is determined by the two sex chromosomes
inherited from the parents. A baby will normally inherit one sex
chromosome from the mother, and one from the father. A woman has
two X chromosomes, so she can give either of her X chromosomes.
The father can give either his X or Y chromosome.
Since the egg already contains an X chromosome (from the mother), the gender of a baby is determined by the X or Y sex chromosome of the sperm cell from the father (thus
adding one more thing to the "blame it on the husband" list if
things don't go as planned).
A girl baby will result if the final
arrangement is XX, and a boy will result if it is XY. As you would expect, about half of the sperm cells contain an X chromosome, and half contain a Y chromosome. It is possible to have an abnormal number of sex chromosomes, however, this is
extremely rare.
Realizing that gender is dependent on the Y-bearing and X-bearing
sperm cells, scientists have attempted for years to separate
these two populations from each other. Fortunately -- or
unfortunately (depending on your view) -- this has proven to be a
very difficult task. The human sperm cell is one of the smallest
cells in the body. The head is oval, tapered and flat. The
genetic material is tightly packed inside the head. The tail is
long and very motile, giving the cell its amazing swimming
capability. Sex selection procedures are based on theoretical and
actual differences between the two types of sperm cells.
How can you tell X sperm from Y?
Various methods attempting separation have included:
1) spinning the cells to separate by weight
2) having the cells swim through different layers of media
3) placing the cells in an electric field
...along with countless other procedures.
While there have been
reports that some of these techniques have separated X and Y
cells to various degrees, it has been difficult to reproduce any
clinically significant success when using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH)
to confirm separation. The most successful technique to date is a process called flow cytometry.
Flow cytometry
With this technique, the nuclear material of the cells is stained
with a dye, and the cells are passed through a machine in a
high-speed, single-file line. The cells are then separated based
on the amount of DNA stain that is read by the machine (the X
chromosome is larger, thus emitting more signal). This technique
is reported to have the ability to sort X-bearing spermatozoa
with approximately 85 percent enrichment, and Y-bearing with 60 percent to 75 percent enrichment.
It is important to know that this technique requires DNA staining with a fluorochrome (fluorescent dye) in addition to ultraviolet laser exposure. The long-term consequences of this procedure are not known, however, several generations of animals
appear to be normal.
While attempts have been made over the years to select the gender
of a child before conception, there is currently no process that can guarantee the selection of either a boy or a girl. For many couples, the ability to simply have a healthy baby is reward enough.