How to Choose Baby Gender

IVF Treatment for Conceiving a Baby Boy or Girl- Know the Facts

In Vitro Fertilization or IVF treatment for short, has given hope to parents for conceiving a baby boy or girl who otherwise might not have a chance to do so naturally. The word Vitro refers to glass and originally to the glass test tubes that the fetus was created in. Today, IVF treatment describes the process whereby a man’s sperm and a woman’s egg are brought together and fertilized outside of the body.

While the actual process of IVF Treatment is easy to understand and describe, it is not easy to succeed with. The first thing you need to do is regulate your cycle which is done by taking  birth control pills on a regular basis. The next step is taking fertility drugs which help to stimulate ovary egg (known as oocytes) production.

Following this, your doctor would remove eggs out your ovary and combine them you’re your significant others sperm. They will also enhance the combination with nutrients which are designed to improve the chances of fertilization. The hope is that the sperm will successfully fertilize the eggs. If they do, your doctor would then put back as any as 5 embryos (eggs that have been fertilized) into your womb. Should you choose, you can actually freeze (for an additional fee usually) them in order to have a backup.

If everything goes according to plan, then at least one egg will attach to the lining of the womb and start growing. At this point, it is the same as getting pregnant with a boy or girl naturally through intercourse. It is important to note that since more than one egg may start growing, there is an increased chance of conceiving more than one baby. However, they would not be twins because they are from different eggs. This means that you could conceive a baby boy and a baby girl, or get pregnant with two boys or two girls. In any case, the babies would not look the same.

Should your eggs not be usable for whatever reason, often times the medical staff will recommend that your try fertilizing a donated egg to try and conceive a baby. The main difference here is that you would be using another woman’s eggs to be fertilized with your husbands or partners sperm. Again, the fertilized eggs would be implanted into your womb, and you would hopefully get pregnant with a boy or girl, but the baby would not be your biological child. Typically the donor will remain anonymous and will be physically healthy and similar to you.

Should you wish, you can receive donor eggs from a family member such as a sister who shares similar DNA. In this way, you will at least have some biological connection. This decision however must not be approached lightly. How would you feel knowing that your partner or husbands sperm fertilized your sisters egg? Would your child eventually find out? Would they then not consider you their real mother? Perhaps these are non-issues but you should discuss them with your sister and partner.

One last thing to consider of course is that your husband’s sperm may not produce enough sperm for egg fertilization. In this case you could consider donor sperm from another man, but would likely not need IVF treatment. Instead you would get pregnant within your body through artificial insemination.  Again you would need to consider the same issues as above but you would at least have the possibility of conceiving a baby boy or girl.