Are natural gender selection techniques effective?

Most couples who are trying to conceive would be over the moon to find out they're pregnant with a baby of either sex. But there are also lots of people who have their heart set on conceiving the gender of their choice. To meet this demand, there are plenty of natural gender selection tales going around. But are any of these truly effective?

There's no doubt that some of the natural gender selection methods offer hope to a lot of people who are trying specifically for a boy or a girl. Because there will always be those who do conceive the gender they were hoping for using these methods, one may be tricked into thinking they could be effective. Of course, these couples could just have been "lucky" and may have conceived the gender of their choice coincidentally.

Scientific studies into the effectiveness of natural gender selection techniques, particularly the Shettles method, developed and promoted by Dr Shettles, show that these methods aren't really effective. These methods all rely on timing intercourse to increase the likelihood of sperm with the "right" chromosome getting to the waiting egg. But limiting the amount of intercourse a couple has during their fertile window will definitely decrease the chance of getting pregnant at all.

Furthermore, there are some speculations that the timing of intercourse isn't the only factor that determines the sex of a baby, and some dispute that timing is relevant at all. Some theories hold that the follicular phase length of a woman also plays a role in determining the likelihood that a baby or a specific sex will be conceived.

The answer, in short, is that it isn't clear whether these natural gender selection methods have any effect at all. Couple who have genuine health concerns with regard to having a baby of a certain gender (as with gender-linked genetic diseases) have other options available, including MicroSort gender selection.