Boy or Girl?: Three Moms' Stories of Gender Selection

Method: Microsort & IVF

Mom: Jennifer Merrill Thompson

• Why she tried gender selection: "I really wanted to share with a daughter the type of bond I had had with my mother and three sisters."
• Strategy: Microsort
• Experience: "After having no luck with Shettles and getting pregnant with my second son, I did my research and met several women online who successfully conceived daughters using Microsort. The first two attempts resulted in pregnancies, but I miscarried very early on. I did two more cycles but didn't get pregnant.
  
  We then decided to use Microsort and IVF, where my eggs were fertilized in vitro with enriched sperm. Because the embryos are not evaluated for gender before they are implanted, there was the possibility that I'd have a boy. But the purity rate of my husband's enriched sperm was 96 percent, so we both were pretty confident we would get what we wanted."
• Outcome: "A daughter, now 2 1/2, with my first round of Microsort with IVF."

Did You Know...?

Among couples seeking gender selection assistance at fertility institutes:

• Canadians are primarily seeking girls.
• American demand is 50/50.
• German demand is 50/50.
• Asians and Indians overwhelmingly want boys.

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Peg Rosen, a mother of two boys, is a writer in Montclair, New Jersey.

Originally published in American Baby magazine, May 2005.