According to a new study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology using in-vitro fertilization to conceive may increase your chances of having a male child. The study, conducted in Australia, found that there was a 56 in 100 chance of conceiving a boy via IVF. When conceiving naturally the chances at 51 in 100.
The study also found that a different assisted reproduction technique called intra cytoplasmic sperm injection, which injects sperm directly into the egg rather than simply mixing eggs and sperm as IVF does, results in more girls. The study looked at nearly 14,000 births that resulted from fertility treatments in clinics in Australia and New Zealand between 2002 and 2006.
Though some worry that this could cause and uneven birth ratio, experts don’t think it’s a major concern yet.
“If we ever got to a point where the majority of births are the result of IVF, then it might be a concern,” Dr. William W. Hurd, division chief of reproductive endocrinology & infertility at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland told AOL Health. “But for individual parents doing IVF it’s not something to worry about. It’s almost a toss-up. You would not notice the difference.”
Hurd also pointed out that in the US about half of IVF treatments use the ICSI technique, which effectively makes the results of the study irrelevant for most Americans.
The gender bias of these techniques doesn’t make them a good way to preselect your baby’s sex either, according to Hurd. It’s just not a big enough ratio. Besides, he adds, most parents undergoing IVF just want a healthy baby and don’t care about the gender:
“Those who already have children might care more about the gender. But most people with no children just want a healthy baby,” he said.
