Complete Your Family with IVF for a Boy or Girl By Nurit Winkler on July 01, 2021

In vitro fertilization, or IVF, can help make dreams of having children come true for people who have struggled with infertility or face other challenges in conceiving, but it may also be used to choose the sex of a baby.

There are many reasons a person or couple may wish to choose whether they have a boy or a girl. Through IVF for a boy or girl, Drs. Marc Kalan and Nurit Winkler help patients in Encino, CA, Bakersfield, CA, Los Angeles, CA, and surrounding areas choose the sex of their child.

What Is IVF?

In vitro fertilization, commonly called “IVF,” is an assisted reproductive technology in which eggs are removed from a woman’s ovaries and combined with sperm outside of the body, in a laboratory setting.

How Can IVF Be Used to Select for a Boy or Girl?

For those who dream of having a boy or a girl, conceiving through IVF can make it possible to select the sex of the baby instead of leaving it to chance.

This is possible because the eggs are fertilized outside of the body and the resulting embryos develop in a laboratory environment and not inside the body. This allows the sex of the embryos to be identified through a process called Pre-implantation Genetic Screening, or “PGS.” If a couple or single person wants to have a child of a specific sex, an embryo of the desired sex can then be used for implantation.

Pre-implantation Genetic Screening and Selecting for a Boy or Girl

Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) is the process that makes it possible to choose the sex of a baby through IVF.

PGS is performed after the eggs have been harvested and fertilized in the IVF process. Fertilized eggs are given time to mature, about five to six days. Once sufficiently matured, the resulting embryos are genetically tested to check for any genetic abnormalities and to identify the sex of the embryos through their chromosomes.

Why Consider IVF for a Boy or Girl?

There are many reasons a single person or couple considering children may want to select the sex of their baby. Some of these considerations include:

Balancing sexes: Some families choose to have a boy or a girl through IVF to balance the sexes of the children in their family. For example, a couple or single parent with a son may want to have a daughter so they can have a child of each sex.

Medical concerns: Some genetic issues are inherited through the sex chromosomes, such as hemophilia and muscular dystrophy. For couples with a history of sex-linked genetic diseases or abnormalities, selecting for the sex not affected by the genetic issue can help increase the likelihood of having a healthy baby.

Other reasons: There are many possible reasons a couple or single person may want to have a son or a daughter. It may be as simple as a woman always dreaming of having a daughter or a man always dreaming of having a son. Whatever the reason, it is a choice that is both personal and valid when considering having a child through IVF.