Can I choose the sex of the child during IVF?

A married couple who plans to undergo an in vitro fertilization procedure often wonders if it will be possible to choose the sex of the child during the protocol? This is indeed possible, but with significant restrictions on the use. More about this we will discuss in this article.

Gender babies during in vitro fertilization is formed in the same way as when conceiving naturally. The principal difference lies only in the place of conception: during natural fertilization, the meeting of the oocyte and spermatozoon occurs in the ampullary part of the fallopian tube, and in artificial insemination, the oocytes previously collected from the woman meet with the spermatozoa in a laboratory test tube.

The sex of the child is predetermined from the moment the parents' sex cells merge. If female oocytes always have a XX chromosome set, then male cells can be either XY or XX. It all depends on which sperm will be the first to reach the egg cell and make a hole in its reliable protective sheath. If the sperm of the twentieth is penetrated first, a girl will be born, and if XY is born, then an heir should be expected.

In vitro with IVF, exactly the same processes occur. Ejaculate, added to the nutrient medium with eggs, creates embryos of different sexes. And theoretically, at the molecular and genetic level, fertility specialists have the opportunity with one hundred percent probability to determine the sex of an unborn baby, the embryo of which is planned to be placed in the uterine cavity, 3-5 days after fertilization in the test tube.

But to order a baby of a certain sex in our country is not possible. Legislation excludes the possibility for parents to spontaneously choose who they want to bear - a boy or a girl. In November 2011, a federal law was adopted that protects and protects the human embryo from gender discrimination.

Selection of embryos of a certain sex is possible only if the birth of a child of the opposite sex condemns him to genetic diseases and suffering. There are several rare diseases that are genetically linked to the sex chromosome. For example, a woman may carry the hemophilia gene. If she gives birth to a boy, he will be terminally ill. But if she has a girl, she will be completely healthy.

If a couple has genetic diseases that can be transmitted to a child of a particular gender, then a geneticist, according to the results of research and tests, recommends that the baby has a specific gender. In this case, the IVF protocol will include the identification of germ chromosomes and replanting only those that meet the requirements of the geneticist.

Planning the gender in the process of IVF for religious convictions (only a boy is needed, because the girl will not accept her husband, etc.), for social reasons (there is a boy in the family, a girl is needed and vice versa), for other reasons in Russia it is impossible in principle . No self-respecting doctor will go for pre-implantation selection of embryos in order to weed out individuals of unwanted sex, since this directly contradicts professional ethics and moral requirements.

In some countries, for example, in Cyprus or in Turkey, during planning for pregnancy with IVF, there is an opportunity to ask for a child of a certain sex.For a fee, clinics go to the complication of the protocol and make the selection of embryos by gender.

If the procedure of in vitro fertilization is carried out on the territory of the Russian Federation, the choice of sex is excluded both with IVF by quota and with a paid protocol. The exception is only the prescription of genetics, who established the presence of a genetic pathology that is associated with sex chromosomes.

You can select embryos of a certain sex only during the pre-implantation diagnosis, during which genetic defects that have arisen during the confluence of germ cells — aneuplodia and translocation, as well as monogenic diseases are determined.

Preliminary diagnosis before embryo transfer is strongly indicated if the woman’s age at the time of entry into the IVF protocol is above 35 years, and the man who provided the sperm for fertilization is more than 40 years old.

If a couple has already experienced two or more unsuccessful attempts of in vitro fertilization, then with a high degree of probability, a preliminary diagnosis of fertilized eggs will certainly be carried out next time. Also, pre-implantation screening is performed in the case of severe male infertility, including those associated with complex forms of teratozoospermia (sperm mutations), and in addition, such screening is desirable for women who suffer from recurrent miscarriage (experienced several miscarriages, missed pregnancies).

In addition to hemophilia, mentioned above, certain forms of muscular dystrophy, hypophosphatemic rickets, and xeroderma pigmentosum can be attributed to diseases that are considered linked to sex chromosomes.

A total of more than 150 pathological conditions can be determined by preliminary pre-implantation diagnosis of embryos. Gender is determined in parallel with the definition of certain genetic pathologies that can be associated and linked to X or Y chromosomes.

In some cases, fertilization is carried out already sperm with a specific set of sex - XX or XY. This is done as part of ICSI when there are direct medical indications for planning the sex of the unborn child, but it was not possible to obtain a large number of oocytes during ovarian puncture or in the natural cycle.

There are no other exact ways of planning sex in vitro fertilization. Neither the Chinese tables, nor the methods of blood renewal, nor other methods popular among women give more than 50% of the probability to "hit" the point. In any of the planning methods, half the time boys are born and half the time girls, no matter what the Chinese or Japanese calendars and blood type tables say.

Statistics of all four decades of using IVF says that the birth of children of both sexes after the procedure occurs with approximately the same frequency. But here, neither doctors nor scientists can come to a single opinion. British scientists estimate that when using IVF, boys are more often born (in 63-65% of cases). A little later, Israeli researchers found that in 61% of cases of ICSI (injection of a spermatozoon previously selected on the basis of morphological, but not sexual characteristics, a needle under the egg shell) girls were born.

Today's statistics show that when a single blastocyst is transferred in 55% of cases, boys are born, if IVF is performed with a dividing embryo, then in 53% of cases babies are born. With ICSI with one blastocyst, 51% of girls are born, but if the fissionable embryo obtained by ICSI is transferred, girls are born in 52% of all successful protocols.

If you look at this statistic more closely, you can easily understand that the probability of the birth of boys and girls after IVF is about the same and identical to conception in vivo - there is a 50% chance that a son will be born and the same number that a daughter will be born.

There are practically no real stories of ECO protocols with the choice of sex on the Internet - usually women are embarrassed by this fact, afraid to be misunderstood by other women who are willing to give a lot to just become mothers of any child.

Women who tried to find out from the doctors which particular embryos they were planted on confessed that they didn’t get an answer, the doctors kept secrets and silence. In some cases, the floor was possible, but for big money and an acquaintance.

For information on whether you can choose the sex of the child during IVF, see the following video.