Category: Gender Prediction Tests

 

Historically speaking, the best way to determine your baby’s gender has been with an ultrasound. While there are plenty of other indicators (some based on fiction, others actually based on science) actually observing the presence of male or female genitalia on an ultrasound has always been the most reliable method for gender prediction.

One of the more frustrating things about this, however, is that it’s usually not until your 20-week ultrasound (or thereabouts) that your doctor can really tell whether you’re going to have a boy or a girl. Those four or five months can seem to drag, especially if you’ve already got children and would like to be able to make plans based on the baby’s gender.

Yet, in the past few years, a new type of gender prediction test has hit the market. This test works much like a pregnancy test; a strip tests a woman’s urine, and will turn one color if the baby is a boy, another color if it is a girl.

The test looks at specific hormones in the woman’s urine. They combine with chemicals on the strip, and react differently if the baby is a boy than if it’s a girl. The urine test claims to work as early as 10 weeks into your pregnancy – half the time that it usually takes for an ultrasound.

According to test makers, these urine-based baby gender predictors aren’t 100% accurate. Accuracy is about 80%, meaning that it’s often simply best to wait for confirmation from your 20-week ultrasound to find out whether it’s a boy or a girl (before you start painting the nursery).

In some ways, this is a good thing. Some experts suggest that verifying a baby’s gender can, in some ways, help to create a prenatal bond between baby and parents. By being able to visualize their baby, parents can begin to bond, even when the baby is still very small and developing.

Some activists have been critical of the test, suggesting that it might spur parents to engage in gender selection via elective abortions, although there doesn’t seem to be any scientific evidence to suggest that this would be a widespread practice. 

 

That first half of pregnancy – up until about 20 weeks when an ultrasound should clearly be able to let you know whether you’re having a boy or a girl – can be frustrating and tense. Predicting your baby’s gender is just part of that process. Whether you’re hoping for a boy or a girl, you really want to know.

There are a number of unscientific –yet sometimes accurate – ways you can use to predict baby’s gender before you have an ultrasound. While you wouldn’t want to make big decisions like what color to paint baby’s room or an entire wardrobe purchase before your ultrasound, you can use some of these methods to try to guess whether it’s a boy or a girl:

• The pencil test. This test involves a sewing needle and a pencil. You’re going to stick the sewing needle firmly into the top of your pencil’s eraser. Then, you’ll thread the needle with a piece of thread that’s about six inches in length. Suspend the pencil on the backside of your hand. Put your hand on the table, with the palm facing downward. You’ll let the pencil swing freely. If it swings in a parallel direction to your arm, this method of gender prediction suggests a boy. If it swings perpendicular, this method of gender prediction suggests you’re going to have a girl, instead.
• Check the heartbeat. The number of beats per minute of your baby’s heartbeat has been used in the past to determine your baby’s gender. While research has shown that this isn’t necessarily accurate, it can still be something to try. Ask the obstetrician about your baby’s heartbeats per minute. If your baby’s heart rate is over 140 beats per minute, you can predict your baby’s gender to be female. If your baby’s heart rate is under 140 beats per minute, you can predict a boy.
• Get a gender prediction test. While these tests aren’t as accurate as an ultrasound, they can be more accurate than guessing (and much more accurate than some of the other methods meant solely for fun). Some of these tests even promise to refund your purchase price if they were incorrect after your baby is born.

First of all, it should be said that it is probably best not to predict your baby’s gender using Drano. While this method of predicting your baby’s gender has been around for a long time, there is not scientific evidence to suggest that it actually works, or that the results are in any way reliable. In addition to this, there may possibly be dangerous side effects from the fumes that are produced when mixing urine and Drano. Finally, there are much more reliable methods of predicting your baby’s gender that don’t pose a risk.

Having said all of that, the fact remains that many women believe that you can indeed predict your baby’s gender using Drano. TO predict your baby’s gender using Drano, you should first be certain not to handle the mixture yourself or to breathe in the fumes from the mixture. Get someone else to help you, for your safety and the safety of your baby.

The first step in predicting your baby’s gender using Drano is to collect around 2 or 3 ounces of your urine. You will want, it is said, to use the first urine of the day for this test. Once you have the urine, you will need to ask your helper to mix it with around two tablespoons of crystal Drano. Do not use the liquid form, as there will not be the same sort of chemical reaction. Once the urine is mixed with the Drano, observe the change. If the mixture turns brownish in color, it is said that you are going to have a boy. If the mixture doesn’t get any darker, and if it doesn’t become brownish in color, the Drano is predicting that your baby’s gender is going to be female.

There are other variations to using Drano to predict your baby’s gender. One version suggests that if the mixture bubbles, you will have a boy. Other variations suggest that a certain color might mean that you are going to have a boy, where a certain other color might mean a girl, and no color change means that the test has failed.

 

One of the most ancient methods of predicting your baby’s gender is with a Chinese gender prediction calendar. This method has been used to help expectant mothers and fathers for thousands of years not only to determine whether they’re going to have a boy or a girl, but to help time their baby making activities so as to know when the best time is to conceive a boy or when the best time is to conceive a girl.

How it works

Chinese calendar gender prediction is based on two important factors: the age of the mother when the baby was conceived, and the month in which the baby was conceived.

The calendar relies on the lunar calendar, so you can’t simply use the Western calendar to make this determination. You need to know how old the woman is under the Chinese calendar, and know what Chinese lunar month the baby was conceived during.

Using the Chinese gender prediction chart

Once you have the mother’s age at the time of conception and the month of conception, it’s a matter of looking at the chart. Some combinations will result in a boy gender prediction, while others will result in a girl gender prediction.

History

The Chinese gender prediction calendar was, in ancient China, used exclusively by the royal families. In fact, it was invented for that purpose. The basic premise was to maximize the odds that royal families would conceive male heirs.

It wasn’t until after the fall of imperialism in China that the Chinese gender prediction calendar came to be used by ordinary people.

Potential errors

There are two common errors people make when attempting to use a Chinese gender prediction calendar: they either fail to use the Chinese (lunar) age of the mother or the lunar month. The other error has to do with miscalculating when exactly the baby was conceived.

Scientific methods

Chinese Gender Prediction calendars aren’t scientific, but they can be fun to use and talk about. Before you buy decorations, furniture, and clothing appropriate for a boy or a girl, you’re probably best off waiting for your 20-week ultrasound.

Let’s face it: We all want to know whether it’s a boy or a girl as soon as we know we’re pregnant. While medical science is giving us those answers sooner and sooner through ultrasound and amniocentesis, waiting until the beginning of the second trimester can be grueling. For most of us, that leaves depending on traditional tests, which aren’t exactly scientifically based. What if there was a scientifically proven test which could let us know earlier?

Blood DNA Tests

There is. It has been available for several years now, but don’t expect your doctor to tell you about it unless you have a medical need to know whether you are having a boy or a girl (apparently, most doctors don’t consider gnawing curiosity a medical need). Fortunately, the test-which tests the DNA in the mother’s blood to determine gender-is widely available online. The basic idea behind the tests is that some of the baby’s DNA is present in the mother’s blood. Therefore, if they can detect Y-chromosomes in the blood, you’re having a boy; if not, you’re having a girl.

The blood tests are noninvasive. They use blood from a finger prick, similar to that which diabetics use to test their blood sugar levels. They’re also highly accurate. The label on one popular brand, Pink or Blue, advertises over 99% accuracy when used after seven weeks of pregnancy. Scientific studies aren’t quite as optimistic about the blood tests’ accuracy, rating them at 95% accurate when taken at seven weeks of pregnancy or later.

Why Your Doctor (Probably) Won’t Prescribe One to You

Doctors have these blood gender prediction tests available to them, but are often hesitant to recommend them to patients. This is based in large part on the fear that expectant parents may use them for gender selection purposes, leading to an increase in selective abortions. This is big enough concern that Pink or Blue refuses to sell their products in countries which have a history of widespread gender selection practices. Doctors do occasionally prescribe blood DNA tests for gender prediction when there is a medical need to know the babies gender, such as when there is a risk of a gender-specific hereditary disease.

Fortunately, they’re not cost prohibitive. The tests themselves can be purchased for around $25. If you have your own lab, that’s a real bargain. Lab testing generally costs between $250 and $300. Whether $300 is worth knowing your baby’s gender a month early is up to you, of course. If not, you can always consult the Chinese Gender Prediction Calendar.