Timing Intercourse to ‘Choose’ the Gender of Your Baby

While there are no guarantees to getting what you want when it comes to natural gender selection, there are surely a few things that can be done to increase the likelihood of having a baby boy or baby girl. If you specifically hope for a boy or girl, it certainly can’t hurt to try a few natural techniques right? (At least this is what I’m going with.)

In order to understand how the timing of when you have sex can impact the gender of your child it is important to look at two different things – first, how ovulation works and second, how the differences in sperm affect this timing.

Ovulation- Releasing of the Queen Egg

Every month, there is a window of fertility that is approximately only five days long. Three days prior to ovulation to one day following ovulation are the best times to conceive. Remember, the egg only has a shelf life of 24 hours, while sperm can live for up to five days in the woman’s reproductive tract. Though each woman is somewhat different, this is the generally accepted “window of fertility” that occurs every month.

So, now that you’ve narrowed doing the deed down to these five days of the month where you are fertile, you have to figure out how to time your intercourse to help choose the gender of your child. That should be easy right? Ok, not so much!

Sperm Basics

A sperm carrying the Y chromosome will result in a boy if it successfully fertilizes the egg. A sperm carrying the X chromosome will result in a girl. There are some main differences in these sperm which plays a role in all this. The Y sperm are very small, but also very quick and agile. The main downside is that they don’t live very long. The X sperm are bigger and much slower, but on the flip side, they live a lot longer.

So in timing sex in order have a boy, it is vital to allow the Y sperm the time they need to reach the egg first. This means that you need to time intercourse on the day that you ovulate. The Y sperm won’t live much longer than that 24 hour period that the egg is viable and you need to give them that chance to meet the egg.

On the other hand, if you want to have a girl, you should time intercourse to two to three days prior to ovulation. During this time, the Y sperm will have died out, leaving the slower but more durable X sperm behind. This greatly increases the chances that you will have a girl.

There are also many other factors that can affect the gender of your child including such diet, and even the sexual position that you use, but timing it properly can help you naturally select your child’s gender.