Natural Gender Selection: Choosing the Sex of Your Baby

I have heard old wives tales about choosing your baby's gender and the TTC chatrooms are all a buzz with phrases like "The Shettles Method".

Personally, I am of the mindset of just wanting a healthy baby. I really don't care if I will be picking out my child's wedding dress one day with her or see him pitching for the Cubs (my husband already informed me if we have a left-handed boy, we are paying for private pitching lessons).

I know some people really care. I have a friend now that is really upset she is having a boy. Obviously she is thrilled to be pregnant but just wanted to buy frilly clothes. A lot of my friends say they wouldn't know what to do with a boy. Another good friend of mine was over the moon about having a girl but her husband is sorely disappointed.

Lucky for me, neither of us care whether we have a boy or a girl. I see all over the net people ending their signatures with "hoping for blue" or "thinking pink". If they would broadcast such stake-in-the-ground statements, then they are likely trying to do gender selection at home.

Here is what I found out.
- The Shettles Method
- This is built on the premise that female sperm is slower than male sperm, but
hardier. It can survive more days without fertilization. Male sperm is quick
and is racing to get to the egg. However, it is built of weaker stock and
can't live as long without being fertilized.
- Based on these purported facts, have sex several days(2-4)before ovulation for a
girl, since the male sperm will die off and all that is left will be female
sperm. Have sex on ovulation day (preferably within 12 hours of ovulation)so
the male sperm beat out the female sperm in this fertility footrace.
- Doctor Shettles, who created the method of gender selection, claims he has a 75%- 90% success rate (seemed like a large range to me)

Aside from not finding any scientific proof to back this up, I would find you need to be pretty patient to use this method if your heart is set on having a girl. You would have far fewer opportunities to have sex and conceive a child. I saw a study on in-gender.com and it ranked the Shettles Method a C- for accuracy having a girl and D for having a boy. It did say that you are likely to take advantage of your fertility when practicing Shettles for a boy (since sex is well timed with ovulation).