Gender Selection for Family Balancing

The desire for family balancing goes back at least as far as the ancient Egyptians. Various methods have been proposed and discarded over the ensuing millennia. Sperm cell sorting techniques are advertised as a low-cost method of sex selection but unfortunately, sex of choice still often remains elusive. Not until the recent advances in reproductive technologies involving in vitro fertilization (IVF) and inter-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) enabling preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), have success rates approached 100%. IVF/ICSI with PGD, is the single most effective method for sex selection having 99.99% accuracy for identifying sex of choice prior to embryo transfer.

Gender selection for family balancing is a hotly debated topic in many countries. The Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine concluded that, “the most prudent approach at present for the nonmedical use of these techniques (for sex selection) would be to use them only for gender variety in a family.” In other words, if you already have a child and another is desired, it is not unethical to use sex selection techniques for family balancing.

The Fertility Centers of New England within appropriate standards of medical care, respects and supports an individual’s choice as to how, when, and what children to have.

We do IVF and ICSI followed by PGD using comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) on a cell called a blastomere removed from an embryo. CGH allows identification of all 23 chromosomes plus the sex chromosomes so that only a chromosomally normal male or female embryo can be selected for transfer back into the uterus. We offer this innovative service at the most competitive cost in the country and our techniques ensure couples desiring family balancing that they will have among the highest success rates in the country. For further information or to make an appointment please contact us today!