Gender Selection When Trying to Conceive

Facebook and Twitter have been all...well, a-twitter with comments on Canda's Kathy Witterick and her husband, David Stocker, who have kept their four month old baby Storm's gender a secret. So much a secret that not even the baby's grandparents know. Why? They are very granola-ish folks who unschool their kids and are determined to at least to live out their lives without negative social energy - including the sexual stereotyping that can come with babies of both genders. A storm, indeed.

For those of us who are trying to get pregnant, it seems like a tempest in a teapot, but it does raise interesting questions about the role of gender. For us, it has seemed that gender selection wasn't something we had the freedom of even thinking about - we'd take what we got and not complain.

However, there are some reproductive endocrinologists and other fertility folks who are offering the opportunity to select baby's gender through several different techniques.

Improvement in the ability to genetically assess embryos before transfer into the uterus (called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis or PGD) has led to the increased ability to gender select, though it is still an imperfect science.

To learn more about PGD, download a recent "Creating a Family" radio show with Dr. Harvey Stern to discuss the how, why, and should of preconception gender selection and family balancing. Dr. Harvey Stern is the Director of Genetics and the Fetal Diagnostic Center at the Genetics & IVF Institute and is Dr. Stern is Medical Director of Fairfax Cryobank and of GIVF’s Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) program. You can listen or download the show at http://www.creatingafamily.org/radioshow.html

Is gender selection a choice you'd make? Why or why not?