Sometimes a couple may wish to select the gender of their child using gender selection. This may be for personal reasons, such as experiencing the joy of raising both sexes, or continuing the family name, or many others. Gender selection can also be critically important in preventing the spread of genetic diseases such as hemophilia, which is transferred from the mother to her son but not to a daughter.
The Internet abounds with suggestions and “treatments” that purport to enable gender selection. Most of these methods focus on sperm since the male chromosome determines the gender of the child. Many claim to be able to separate the “male sperm” from the “female sperm”. Unfortunately, there is no scientific documentation for the effectiveness of these treatments and they are a waste of  resources. There are clinical studies to find a way to effectively “sort” sperm but the results are not conclusive.
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is the only proven effective (virtually 100%) method to select a child’s gender. PGD is performed on mature embryos after their development in an in vitro fertilization cycle. (See an extensive discussion of PGD).
A small hole is made in the embryo’s surrounding membrane and a microscopic sample of the cell’s genetic material is withdrawn for examination using FISH or PCR (single gene defects). The procedure does not damage the embryo or interfere with its development. If a female child is desired, only embryos determined to be XX will be transferred to the uterus and if a male is desired the embryo with the XY chromosome structure will be transferred. Overall, IVF success rates are not affected by the procedure and the success rates for gender selection approach 100%.
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